


Of Flights--and flings--and shipwrecked hearts

by SlipOfAScribe



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Barebacking, Behind the Scenes, Bisexual Reyes Vidal, Blow Jobs, Bottom Reyes, Changed Canon Conversations, During-Game, M/M, Masturbation, Multi, Other, Panic Attacks, Pansexual Scott Ryder, Post-Game, Reyes hates himself but Scott and SAM help, Rimming, SAM likes himself, Scott hates himself but Reyes and SAM help, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Reflection, Sex with AI, Slight Canon Divergence, Spoilers, Switch Reyes, Switch Scott, Top Scott, navigating relationship, pre-game, quickly established relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2020-12-24 14:34:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 33,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21101057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlipOfAScribe/pseuds/SlipOfAScribe
Summary: HIATUS, sorry. A look behind the scenes at Scott Ryder's time as Pathfinder and Reyes Vidal's time as (redacted for spoiler sake, but y'all know). A look before Andromeda and after. All the in-between scenes, the aftermath of tragedies and victories. This follows Scott and Reyes as they settle themselves in Andromeda and deal with all their damned feelings about themselves and for each other. SAM becomes more than just a helpful AI; he becomes as much a partner to Scott and Reyes as Scott and Reyes are to each other.





	1. The Sun Was Shining

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted a while back, I gave this a big revamp and am working on it more now. The plotline for this had a major overhaul but some of the original posting remained usable. Hopefully this new version is much better. I'm actually enjoying writing to it now so...

The sun was shining on the sea,

Shining with all his might:

He did his very best to make

The billows smooth and bright —

And this was odd, because it was

The middle of the night.

“You’re sure you want to do this?” Sara was chewing her bottom lip, waiting as the silence grew between them. They were at her apartment, on the couch next to each other.

Scott knew what he was going to answer, he just didn’t want to. Not yet. He watched Sara grow more and more nervous as the seconds ticked by, and he finally caved. “I’m not getting much of a choice, am I? He picked us for his team, you said yes right away, and I…” Scott shook his head. “I’ve got nothing left here.”

When Sara reached out for him, Scott pulled back slightly. He knew his withdrawal pained her; he could see it in the way she took her eyes from his, but he couldn’t bear to have her try to comfort him now. Scott Ryder would not abandon his sister no matter how angry he was, and he certainly wouldn’t let her cross 600 years and lightyears upon lightyears of space without him. So yes, he was going to accept his father’s invitation to join the Pathfinder team and shoot his ass across space and time all because Sara wanted to go. It wasn’t a decision in his mind. He had no choice in this matter.

“I can’t stay here, Scott. Not after mom and not with a chance to be closer with dad.” She didn’t reach out for him this time, but her tone was caressing enough. She wanted him to be happy even though the choice she made was wholly selfish.

“I know. I’m not upset at your decision. I know why you have to do this, so I don’t hate you for it, okay? I really, really don’t. But it is something that I have to work through for myself. Just… give me some time.” Scott patted her shoulder before getting up from the couch and collecting his keys. He needed to go home and prepare himself for a conversation with his father.

Alec Ryder was spending most of his time in the Initiative Headquarters, which had been based on Earth by a random happenstance of drawn-straws. Scott had only been there once when he was briefed on being chosen for the Initiative, and he hadn’t seen his father at that time. It wasn’t hard to find the man’s office, though. He was working closely with Jien Garson, so his office was right next to hers. Garson’s office was the busiest in the building, and likely the largest, though Scott hadn’t explored much of the place yet to confirm anything. 

Scott found himself hovering in the hallway just before the section of well-inhabited offices. He drew a few passing glances but ignored them. He was going in, he really was, so they could butt out and mind their own fucking business.

_ No _ , Scott thought. _ You need to stay calm. Anger is not going to make this any better. _

Pacing a time or two more, Scott felt some of the tension slide off his back. He settled his shoulders and marched on into his father’s office. Alec Ryder, for all his flaws, had always been an impressive man. As his son, Scott had gotten some attention because of the man’s reputation, and a lot of it had been positive. Still, the awe at the man’s stature, intimidating work personality, and achievement list faded quickly for Scott; he had the unique view of being a living cliche. The ignored child of a wildly successful parent. And then the equally disregarded child of a mad scientist. Oh, how the mighty fall. And take down those trapped below them. 

“Scott?” Alec had caught sight of him from across the room. He stepped away from a salarian with the calculator and a shrill, annoying voice that asserted some complaint over such a quick dismissal. It was ignored. “Scott, I can’t believe you came!”

Instead of answering verbally, Scott just shrugged his shoulders and gave a little smile. He let himself clasp hands with his father, but kept enough of his body turned away to stay a hug. He was not ready for that much affection from this man.

“Wow, you look-”

“Taller?”

Alec frowned, understanding this was a jab at his poor conversation skills from previous conversations. “Older, is what I was aiming for.”

Scott snuffled, not quite a scoff. “It’s been a few years, so that would make sense. You don’t look older at all, though.”

“Oh, I’m sure that’s not true.” Alec gestured with his head towards a semi-private area with a couple of leather seats that they sat in.

His father really didn’t look like he’d aged at all, which somehow bothered Scott more than anything. He couldn’t put his finger on why, but his annoyance felt like it had something to do with his mother’s passing. He skipped over the remarks that ran through his head and went with, “So, I’m in.”

“You’re going to Andromeda?” Alec’s posture changed, shifted upwards, and his blue-gray eyes brightened. He was excited.

Scott almost wanted to feel excited with him, but he couldn’t get himself there. “Yeah, well Sara’s going, so you know, I am, too.” 

Alec nodded as he watched Scott. He was waiting for something, and Scott guessed it was some excitement from his part about making the choice to go, and for reasons beyond his sister. He didn’t have any, and Scott didn’t do well with faking emotions. Instead, he silently watched his father back. The silence dragged on awkwardly.

“Well, this has been fun. I’ve got to get my stuff together, so I’ll see you on the Hyperion.” Scott pushed up from the leather chair, eyeing the salarian who hovered a bit away, still holding the calculator and grumbling under his breath.

“Right.” Alec got up, shifted in a way that Scott assumed was an attempted hug. When Scott pulled away, Alec gave a nod and turned back towards his work. “I’ll be right over, Tann.” Then, to Scott, “See you on the Hyperion. I really am glad you two are coming.”

Scott nodded a few times, then turned and left the way he’d come in. It had gone so quickly. He should have stayed and talked more. He didn’t actually have anything to say, though. The ride back to his apartment was mindless static. His mind was blank when it should be running with thoughts. An acceptance to be put into cryo sleep for six hundred years wasn’t something to be taken lightly, and something that big should have triggered his anxiety. Still, what was there to think about when the acceptance wasn’t a choice?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Reyes rolled over in the bed, pushing back his share of the sheets. A warm hand snaked its way after him, resting dark blue against his olive-tan skin. He glanced at it and paused a moment, patted it, then stood up. “I’ve got to meet with the batarian crew.”

“Now?” Aria T’Loak’s voice poured through the dark, warm space like icy poison. “You should put it off, stay with me a while longer.”

She knew how to dig her way under Reyes’s skin, to manipulate him into anything she wanted. But this time, it was different. He _wasn’t_ meeting with a batarian crew. He was meeting with an unknown contact about some “Initiative.” If there was something big going on, Reyes wanted to make sure he knew about it. He was Aria’s little bird after all. It was his job to keep her updated, and to keep to the shadows while he did so. Reyes Vidal was very good at his job.

“I can’t, _mi cielito_. I’ll be back tonight. Promise.”

Aria gave a growl and threw something that hit Reyes in the back of the head and wrapped around his shoulders. It was his shirt. “You’d better not be late. I wasn’t finished with you, Vidal.” 

He slipped the shirt on over his head and backed away with his hands raised. “A promise is a promise. I’ll be here.”

He was not there. In fact, that was the last time Reyes saw Aria. Instead of playing little bird to the Queen of Omega, Reyes signed himself up with the Initiative as a pilot. They’d need them for the Pathfinder Teams, whatever those were. All Reyes knew was that it was a way out, to be something bigger and better than what he was in this little galaxy. Every mistake, every bad relationship, he could leave it behind and find a different course, a different life where he was _somebody_ instead of an anybody.

When he signed up that night, some woman named Jien had him load up on a ship with a couple of others and head off port, to Earth. Reyes hadn’t been there since he’d left at five or six years old, he couldn’t quite remember now. It was exciting to be going back to the human homeworld, but he was already itching for that new galaxy. He may have appreciated the trip a little better had he not been focused on what was to come later. 

Turns out, cryo wasn’t so bad. They put him in a nice, comfy initiative work suit and packed him and the others into little pods. The freeze was near instantaneous; he barely had time to gasp at the cold. Then, Reyes was waking up in medbay, his body shaking and lungs burning as he sucked in filtered Nexus air.

Something was wrong. It wasn’t just the offset of being pulled from cryo. Something didn’t feel right on the ship. Reyes tried to stand and a nurse pushed him back down on the medical table.

“Sit a moment. You’re still adjusting. We’ll get you something to drink in just a sec’.” She scurried off when he nodded his consent.

Reyes watched all of them scurrying. The place seemed to be in once piece, but there was a heavy air of disaster nonetheless. He waited a moment more until each nurse seemed occupied, then he went off to find out what was going on. The doors wooshed open and he found his way to a tram. The thing was lit up, and the omnitool at his wrist beeped at him. Pushing a few quick buttons, Reyes was on his way to something labeled Operations. If anyone knew anything, he guessed they’d be there.

He walked into a hurrying mess of people. Each one seemed bent on a mission and didn’t let anything get in their way. He carefully picked his way through them, seeking out Jien or Kesh, the two he’d had most contact with about everything. It was Kesh he found first, her voice booming over a small crowd. She knew how to pull everyone together, that was for sure. She had the group with tools in their hands and had them pouring out across the decks, ready to make the ship function as it was supposed to. Reyes made his way to her, glancing around as he walked. He just noticed the floor was cold on his bare feet.

“Hey, Kesh, what’s going on? Did we make it?”

“In a manner of speaking.” She looked him up and down, a glimmer of recognition running across her face. “Pilot for Pathfinders, right? How’d you get past security?”

Reyes glanced back to the ramp that led to the tram area, then back to Kesh and shrugged. “Didn’t run into any of them. What’s going on?”

Kesh nodded towards a set of doors, people making their way for the pair. No one really got in Kesh’s way. “We hit something. Doesn’t seem to have done too much damage to the main set of operations, but one of the wings is busted all to hell. My team is going to start repairs, but we’re trying to get in touch with the arks, make sure they don’t run into any trouble.”

With a nod, Reyes followed the conversation, looking towards the big front windows. There wasn’t much but open space for him to see though. “We hit another ship?”

“No, some sort of dark matter. Tore right through our shielding and we lost a few people.” She went to a console and started plugging in information that Reyes wasn’t paying attention to. “We woke some of the pilots in case we do find the Arks right away. We’ll need Pathfinder teams ready to go.”

“Understood,” he said. Although, Reyes wasn’t quite certain he did understand. While the Pathfinder role was explained to him, it was something new. Something he wanted to see in action.

That never happened. Instead, he made himself a useful pair of hands around the station until the rebellion. When the chaos hit, Reyes was working construction in one of the far off wings. The electricity went funny, armed men and women came flying in, and recruits were picked up or forced to join. Reyes was quick with falling into line with those who’d keep him alive, a trait he’d picked up in Omega. That was supposed to change here. Andromeda was supposed to be different. Still, when a gun is shoved in your face, old life-saving habits die hard.

So, with the fall of the exiles, Reyes found himself flying off ship and landing on some shit forsaken planet with two sets of rather angry aliens. Fortunately, the exiles were armed and led by the ever charismatic Sloane Kelly. Reyes knew who he needed to get behind to survive this, but she reminded him too much of Aria T’Laok. She was too rigid in her ruling, and there was more than just survival in her eyes. Reyes weedled his way close to her, offering his ability to fall into shadow and collect whatever information she needed. 

But he also started something else. Something bigger and run completely by Reyes, discreetly of course.


	2. The Moon Was Shining Sulkily

The moon was shining sulkily,

Because she thought the sun

Had got no business to be there

After the day was done —

"It's very rude of him," she said,

"To come and spoil the fun."

Scott stood over Sara’s pod, seeing the scorch marks and fearing the worst. He reached a hand out for Doctor T’Perro who stood next to him, wrapping his fingers gently around her wrist. “Is she?”

“Alive, but unstable. We will have to place her in a low-level coma and let her come out of it naturally.”

Damn it. This was not how things were supposed to go. It was Sara who wanted to be here in the first place, and they should have woken her up first. What was Scott supposed to do now? He tried to keep his breathing even as too many scenarios raced through his head, all involving Sara’s death.

Fuck.

But in the next few moments, Alec was calling for the Pathfinder team and Scott was off, leaving Sara behind in medbay. He met up with Cora, a woman he’d spoken to briefly back in the Milky Way, and together they went to find Alec. He tried to pay attention to Cora as she offered her condolences regarding Sara’s condition, but he found he couldn’t focus. Instead, he watched himself put one foot in front of the other and made sure he didn’t trip. Repression. As long as he was moving, he was good.

In another blur of ‘too much to handle’, Scott was falling out of a shuttle and hurtling towards the ground of a shithole planet while SAM let him know that his boosters weren’t working and he was reaching terminal velocity.

Scott screamed at the AI. It was all he could do.

Somehow he lived, though, and then he was running off and finding himself shooting at aliens who were shooting at him and his friends.

The end of Scott’s trip to this horrid planet was gulping in poisonous air and then having his father slam his own helmet on Scott’s suit. He fell into darkness wondering how this all could have gone so wrong.

When he woke again, something was different. He sat up slowly from the hard platform he was laid out on and grabbed at his head, an ache set in that felt so deep it stabbed at the center of his brain and radiated outward.

_ Hello, Scott.  _ It was SAM's voice but it didn't sound quite right.

"Where am I?" Scott groaned while steadying himself upright.

_ SAM Node. You were clinically dead for twenty-two seconds. _

Dead. Scott's heart stuttered. "The others?"

Liam's voice from the floor interrupted the thought. "Hey, you're still with us." Then he spoke into his omni-tool. “Guys, get to SAM node, Ryder’s awake.”

Scott rubbed a circle on his chest, focusing on slowing his breathing back to normal. He watched Liam climb to his feet and hover with worried airs. 

"Yeah. SAM said I died?"

"Huh? I didn't hear him."

Scott frowned but before he could inquire further, Cora, Doctor T'Perro, and Doctor Carlyle came into SAM Node. Lexi T’Perro was the one to come over and start checking Scott’s vitals. She moved his limbs around, scanning with her omni-tool and checking his pulse with her fingers. Scott just let himself be shuffled around, mind still processing the fact that he’d died.

“Why am I in SAM node?” He managed to ask between some of the fussing.

“Your father…” Cora looked down and her face crumpled into pain. “It was your life or his, and he chose you.”

“What…” Scott wasn’t sure what to ask. Flashes of the planet came back to him, and he saw his father transferring the helmet, leaving himself exposed to the toxic air instead.

“SAM is now part of you in a way we don’t entirely understand. It played havoc with your brain,” Lexi said.

“SAM?” Scott tried reaching out the AI again, and this time when he answered, it didn’t sound the same as when Scott had first woken up. It was clearly spoken through the node and heard by everyone.

“Your father authorized the transfer of Pathfinder authority to you, Scott.”

Time stopped. Scott’s head buzzed as the sentence played in his head a few times. “Wait wait wait,” Scott said. “Shouldn’t that be Cora?”

“In theory,” Cora pipped up, a hint of anger in her tone. “In reality, you’re the new Pathfinder, Scott.”

Fuck that noise. Scott wasn’t ready for something like that. It wasn’t what he wanted, wasn’t what he came here for. His father’s poor decision making was falling back on Scott once again, and it was suddenly too hot in SAM node. There wasn’t enough air flow. He needed to move. 

Scott climbed off the bed and Lexi tried to stop him, putting a hand on his shoulder. He shrugged her off and took a few steps toward the entrance, then turned around. “This can’t be happening.”

“What? Don’t think you’re up for it? I think you’ll do great,” Liam said in a voice that was too upbeat for Scott to deal with right now.

Lexi moved forward again, placing her hand back on Scott’s shoulder. He stayed still this time. “It’s all academic anyway. Trying to untangle SAM now could kill you.”

Scott’s mind was still reeling, but Cora stepped up and took control of the situation. “I know this is tough, but we need to start thinking about the next step. A lot of people are counting on us,” she said.

And where the hell were they supposed to go from here? “Is the ark still drifting?” he asked the room.

“That’s the thing,” Liam chimed. “Whatever your dad did with that tower saved the day. Some sort of atmosphere scrubber.”

“The energy cloud thinned out,” Cora said, taking over again. “We’re on our way to the rally point now. Should be at the Nexus soon.”

While it didn’t seem like Cora was done speaking, Scott really needed to take a walk. “Good. I’ll meet you at the helm when we reach it.” 

He left, walking away from comments and protests that he didn’t pay much attention to. Movement always helped Scott think, and oftentimes helped him calm down from oncoming panic. Today it wasn’t doing much, but staying in that room with the rest of them was worse. Scott strolled back through the little hallway, glancing to his left at his father’s room. He turned from it and practically jogged out to the bigger atrium. There were a few people wandering about, checking systems and making sure things were set as they continued on their way. 

“SAM?” Scott waited for the response in his head, and he was rewarded.

_ Yes, Pathfinder Ryder? _ SAM’s voice echoed in his mind, not out from an omni-tool or console.

Huh. “How are you talking to me like this?”

_ This is our private channel, Pathfinder. Your father did not tell the complete truth of my functionality _ .

“More secrets. Color me surprised,” Scott grumbled as he paced through hallways of the Hyperion. 

_ As you know, your father’s work was rather controversial. He did not think that people would respond positively to the knowledge of my true capabilities. _

“Explain that to me more SAM. What’s different about you from other AI?”

_ We have a symbiotic relationship. I am able to access parts of your nervous system, and in return I learn from each and every one of your experiences. In layman’s terms, I experience everything that you do. _

That raised many questions, and Scott wasn’t sure where to start. Clearly, he didn’t have to start anywhere.

_ I sense your hesitation and concern, Pathfinder. I assure you that I will not interact with any of your body’s functions without your knowledge. It would not benefit me to harm you. _

“That’s...comforting.” Scott cleared his throat and leaned against a wall. “SAM? Can you just call me Scott, please?”

_ Yes, Scott. _

Right. That was a little better while Scott tried to process things. How in the hell had he wound up in this situation? Scott was not ready for this job, but he’d put his head down and bull through it like he’d done back home after his father’s fall from grace.

So, he did. He bulled through political bullshit, got a vault up and running, and set up his first outpost. Now he just needed to get a look at a vault that was running properly.

  
  


Aya.

Standing in the antechamber between the airlock and platform down out of the ship, Scott was too still. His thoughts had time to fester.

Scott was the wrong choice for this. He wasn’t supposed to be Pathfinder. His military training wasn’t enough for this sort of thing. He was going to screw everything up, he was going to let his father down, and he was going to destroy the Initiative’s efforts at colonizing a new world. Hell, he’d barely set up Prodromos on Eos and now he was landing at gunpoint on someone else’s home and it would be up to him alone to make sure this First Contact went well, even though it wasn’t actually first contact with the angara since that was already messed up on Kadara with the Exiles. And it should really be his father here. Or his sister. Or Cora. Why hadn’t his father transferred SAM over to Cora? It wasn’t a distance thing, it wasn’t because Scott was close enough for a transfer, because SAM was accessible to the whole team. And damn it, Scott couldn’t breathe! No matter how quickly he sucked in air, it wasn’t quick enough to actually fill his lungs, and he could feel his skin starting to catch fire. Everything was too hot, the sounds of the ship’s engine roared in his head, flooding his thoughts, and--

_ Pathfinder. You are having a panic attack. Shall I call for Doctor T’Perro? _ SAM’s voice smoothed over the rushing noises in his head and shocked him into holding his breath.

“What?” He gasped, fingers gripping the edge of the ship’s rampway as he waited for it to open once they had landed. “No, don’t call anyone. I’m fine.” Scott inhaled and shook his arms out, shifting from foot to foot for a moment to try and ground himself. He was not fine, but he had to do this.

The doors opened and there was no return now. Raising a hand to shield from the light pouring in, Scott walked slowly down the ramp, taking purposeful breaths in and out. 

_ Heart rate is still above normal. _

“I know, SAM,” he grumbled. As his eyes adjusted, Scott found himself facing a bunch of aliens with guns pointed at him. He stopped and ground his teeth together.

SAM spoke in his head again.  _ Please allow me to assist you, Scott. _

It was the way SAM said ‘Scott’ that really got his attention. SAM often still used Pathfinder when they were talking business, and something in him using his name now felt more intimate than just an AI in his head. It felt like a friend reaching out in worry.

“How?” he asked just as he got to the end of the ramp and the aliens jabbed the guns at him, speaking in words their translators couldn’t yet decipher. SAM would speed up the process, but it still took time to connect with the Hyperion’s database of languages, especially because most of it came from what they could take from Kadara rebels.

Scott needed to say something to those gathered. “I’m unarmed. I’m not here to fight.” He wasn’t sure if they could understand him, but it was worth a try.

In his head, SAM said,  _ I can help your body’s nervous system to react less to stimulation therefore reducing the panic response. _

“Do it,” he whispered. Anything that could help him right now was welcome.

Scott was led to what looked like a female, and she stood with hands clasped in front of her, holding the attention of everyone around. Clearly in charge. When she spoke, Scott could understand. SAM really was a wonder.

And whatever SAM did to his nervous system, helped immediately. Scott could feel his breath coming in easier, and suddenly he could think easier, even when a large male angara came bearing down on him. Scott froze, holding still and keeping his ground while the male circled him. Under other circumstances, he might have paid more attention to the man’s beautiful eyes and less attention to the dangerous way he prowled. 

But the man left after some grumbling, and Scott was now following the woman to meet with the leader of something called The Resistance. Scott knew this was a big moment, and he needed to be careful how he spoke to these people. From what he was being told, he was surprised they hadn’t just fired on his ship from the start. He wouldn’t have blamed them after what they’d been through with the Kett and Exiles.

SAM was there with him, in his head, offering pieces of advice and information as it came. Perhaps Scott wasn’t as alone as he first thought. Standing in front of Evfra, SAM offered him a few words, and it seemed to work. While Evfra didn’t necessarily like him, he had allowed Jaal to come with Scott and allowed the Initiative to prove themselves through Scott’s actions.

All Scott had to do was not fuck up.

Easier said than done. 

Scott’s hands were shaking as he stood between Jael and the Moshae, the Cardinal hovering before them pleading that Scott leave the facility intact. This wasn’t a decision he could make. Who was he to decide the fate of the angara below his feet, trapped in containers and kept from their families. Who was he to decide whether this facility could risk being kept functioning. 

_ Scott. _ SAM’s voice came floating through their ‘private channel’ making Scott blink and take in a breath.  _ There are lives here that can be saved. We can always come back and destroy the facility later. Take the angara. _

With a short nod, Scott raised his gun to the Cardinal’s head. “Release the pods. This place will stay.”

“No!” The Moshae cried out, but the Cardinal went to her communication’s device and let the angara free.

Off to the side, Jaal got on communications with the other infiltration team and directed them to get as many of their people free off the base as possible. Scott stood with the gun still raised, and the Cardinal smiled at him. She relaxed, and that was a mistake. Scott looked her in the eyes. “Fuck off,” he growled and pulled the trigger three quick successive times. 

As alarms blared, the team moved out onto the roof for evacuation. It was crawling with kett, of course. “SAM, path?”

“Three shots to the anointed at your left, then move into cover behind the crates in the middle of the platform.” He spoke over all of their channels, assisting each member of the team. Scott followed the instructions, swinging his weapon around at the targets as they came. He blasted a path to the higher platform and landing pad, but their luck had to run out. 

Two fiends crawled their way out of some side rooms and rumbled their way forward. “Fuck. Focus fire,” Scott called out over coms. “Jaal and Cora on the right, myself on the left. Take those things down!”

Scott could feel a coil in his stomach, a heat rising up and making his hands shake. This was too much. This was too many. They were going to die out on this fucking platform, and the rescue was in vain. He would fail as Pathfinder--

_ PATHFINDER! _ SAM’s voice yelled through his mind and he snapped from the downward spiral. “Switch to assault rifle. Maintain fire at the throat when it lifts its head to move forward.”

Scott quickly swapped his weapons, and then a sense of calm pooled in his body. SAM had messed with something like before. It helped. Scott focused, and fired like SAM had said. The beast got closer, but it was bleeding heavily, stopping to swat at bullets and managing only to hurt itself further.

As the beasts collapsed meters from the platform, another surge of kett poured from the doorway. But it didn’t matter. Their shuttle had landed and the Moshae was climbing aboard. Scott covered their retreat, and they were all safely away. 

He took a seat with his weapon still in hand. Yanking his helmet off, Scott took in some deep breaths of cold air, the oxygen settling his nerves. He looked at his boots covered in different color blood, some of it his own he realized. Something had burned through the armor on his leg and blood dripped down from the wound. He could feel the others shifting around him, taking account of their own wellbeing, and Scott made a point of not looking up at them. He couldn’t deal with fallout from his decision just yet. 

Putting his gun aside, Scott pulled his gloves off and reached down to the burnt part of his armor. There was a sizable burn through it, and his now-bare fingers touched down on the ruined skin. It burned and he hissed a sharp, pained breath. This was something he’d felt before from his time guarding a relay. Burns from incendiary rounds were a bitch. 

_ SAM _ , he thought, wondering if their private channel worked both ways.

_ Yes, Scott? _

_ Can you do something for the burn? _

_ Yes. I can direct white blood cells to help the healing process, and I can manage the pain. _ SAM’s voice had, once again, a calming effect on Scott’s racing mind. It was one good thing to come from his father’s rebellious mad-scientist nature.

_ Thank you _ . 

He sat back in the seat now, resting his head on the seatback and closed his eyes. The ride back to the base was a short one, but it felt longer with the expectation of having to deal with the Moshae’s anger. Scott would take it, though, because he felt he’d done the right thing. They were actively fighting against the kett, and that facility was now on their radar. The angara would be reunited with people they thought long lost. Scott knew about familial loss, and he would have wanted someone to make the same choice were his family in the facility. Plus, Jaal had wanted this same choice, and Scott had gotten to know him in their travels and a couple of missions. He respected what the man had to say, especially now that he wasn’t stalking around Scott like a lion.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The longer that Sloane Kelly had control over Kadara Port, the more people were being terrorized and kicked out. While Reyes had thought early on that Sloane was likely another Aria T’Loak, he’d had hope that her military background would have given her some sense of honor. They’d rebelled for a reason, after all, one that was supposed to be about the people. 

But she was no different than any other low life. Not that Reyes could be open about that opinion and still keep the position that he had within the Port. Sloane ruled those up above with an iron fist, but Reyes had found a following down below. He was able to gather information, slip cargo in and out, and was building up a system. Already, he’d made friends with the bartender at Tartarus. The man liked Reyes, and liked even more the shipments he was able to slip in under Sloane’s nose.

No one really strayed out beyond the walls of the Port anymore, except for Reyes who was willing to meet other smugglers anywhere in Kadara. That gave him a lot of room to play that others didn’t have.

It was also how he’d made friends with one Keema Dohrgun. The angaran woman wanted more control in what used to be an angaran port and planet. While the others of her species had mostly given up on it, Keema was keen on making friends with anyone who could give her a leg up. She was very good at being diplomatic and helpful while also keeping enough about herself secret so that it wasn’t used against her. The two of them were sitting in Tartarus now, drinking in one of the private rooms together.

“You’ve really got something going here, Reyes.”

“Ah, it’s not much. Just keeps me in the know when I need to be.”

Keema smiled and grabbed the bottle from the table, refilling both of their drinks. “I bet it could be a lot more than what it is.”

Something in her tone made Reyes perk up. If Keema had an idea, it was usually worth listening to. “You have something in mind, Keema?”

“Sloane has too much power here. I don’t think the angara can take this port back, and I realize that we need to live with the rest of you aliens. However, Sloane isn’t good for this place. She plays nice with the angara, but for how long?”

“I don’t know that we could get enough people to rise up against Sloane. She has a military background and a bunch of rather enthusiastic followers.”

“Perhaps, but you have information and contacts that she could never have.” Keema leaned back and looked Reyes up and down a moment, pausing at his eyes as though she were thinking out her next statement carefully. It felt like she was looking for something from him, but he wasn’t sure what that could be. Mind apparently made up, Keema said, “The angara need eyes on this planet, and someone like me can only get so far. They need alien help, and the Resistance is looking for a contact.”

“And you think I would be a good candidate for that?” Reyes put the glass to his lips and sipped slowly. It was something to think about, that was for sure. Having an in with the angaran resistance would definitely give him an advantage in many things.

Keem shrugged her shoulders and took a drink as well. “As good as anyone, I suppose.” She was teasing, it sat in the laughing tones of her voice.

Reyes grinned at her. “Alright, who do I need to meet with?”

“You’ll meet with Evfra, their leader. You need to take a ride with me, though. He refuses to come to Kadara.”

“Mm, where are you taking me?”

“Voeld.”

“Shit, that’s a cold place. The last few people who went there, I didn’t hear from again.”

“Probably killed by my people,” Keema said matter-of-factly. “It’s a large battleground between us and the kett, and having interlopers isn’t beneficial.”

Reyes nodded. “I imagine so. Is there anything I should know before going with you?”

“Evfra won’t like you. He knows why it’s beneficial, but that doesn’t mean he’ll like it.” Keema set the empty glass down and stood up. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning. Same place?”

With a raised eyebrow, “Who said I agreed to go?”

“Oh, not interested?” Keema kept her back to him as she made her way toward the door. “I’ll just find someone else then.”

“Wait!” Reyes took to his feet in case she was serious. “Wait, you know I’m interested. What time tomorrow?”

“How early can you be ready?” She had her hand on the door but glanced over her shoulder. 

“As early as you need me. Will he want anything in return right away? A token or gesture of some kind?”

Keema laughed and opened the door. “I’ll let you decide if that’s necessary.”

The next morning, Reyes woke to the sound of his alarm blaring in his ear. He’d been up late picking through data that could prove useful to the man he was going to see. He also made sure to grab a bottle of something angaran to give as a good gesture. Then rethought it, wondering if him having possession of such a drink would be more offensive and decided that information was enough. Something big on Sloane, perhaps.

Dressed in Initiative rebel finery, Reyes strolled the platform outside of Tartarus, and took up a spot on the rail to lean and wait. While inside he was all turmoil and questions, he preferred to look to the outside world that he was completely in control of himself. It helped to convince someone to trust in you if you seemed confident. Reyes was anything but going into this, but he would keep his eye on the prize. Having a contact this big could set him up for great things.

Keema showed up as cheery as ever. He wondered if she ever had a bad day or bad mood. It didn’t seem like it, and that could be the front she put up. “Good morning, Shena.”

“What?” Reyes looked at her skeptically. 

“It’s angaran for ‘mouth’. Since you’ll be our information specialist, we thought it rather fitting. It wouldn’t do to have the name Reyes plastered all over sensitive transmissions afterall.”

Reyes snorted. “No, but ‘shena’?”

Keema narrowed her eyes. “Do you not like our language, human?”

Reyes just gave her a flat look and pushed off the railing. “Let’s go.”

Laughing, Keema led him to her shuttle. The off-world travel would take hours, so he settled into reviewing his datapad and what he wanted to present to the angaran leader. He’d heard of the man and knew that this would not be an easy contact to maintain. Each step and each word precise. Reyes thought he’d have to handle Evfra with the same caution he handled Aria and Sloane, which is to say like a rabbit near a snake.

When they made landfall on Voeld, Reyes swore he could already feel the cold cutting through the shuttle’s walls. He really preferred warmer climates. “How do people live here?”

“It’s an important place to my people. It wasn’t always like this. It used to be warm with miles of water stretching out as far as the eye could see. But then the scourge happened and everything froze over.” Keema tossed a heavy jacket at Reyes. “There is so much of our history buried under the ice. We were just making headway in digging it out when the kett attacked. Or so I’m told. I was just a child when the kett invaded.” 

Reyes nodded, tucking that piece of information away. If he could get more about unearthing angaran history, that could really set him in their good graces. He’d have to ask around when he got back to Kadara. 

It turned out that Evfra was as much of a hardass as Reyes had been prepared for. He had the demeanor of a man who’d seen too much war and lost too many friends to the business. Reyes understood that, and he led the talks with what he could do for them, not asking for anything in return. What Reyes needed from them would come naturally with these arrangements. He was already seeing more of the angara than any of the Initiative likely had.

“Here,” Reyes said, handing over his data pad to Evfra. There was a moment where Reyes thought the man would not reach out. He merely looked at the extended hand with a slight curl of disgust on his lips. Reyes waited a moment more.

Finally, Evfra stepped closer and took the datapad in hand. “What am I looking at?”

“Sloane’s movements outside of Kadara Port.” Reyes dropped his hands back at his sides. He made sure to keep his movements slow and obvious. “She claims she’s rid the planet of kett, but she keeps herself locked in the Port now.”

“Except for these routes,” Evfra said as he scanned the map on the datapad.

Reyes nodded. “Those are the few paths she has her people patrol. As you can see, it’s barely enough to make sure she keeps control outside of the Port. In the next screen, you’ll see some readings from angaran shuttles that show the kett are coming back. Perhaps even setting up a small base in the east.”

Evfra took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “So, she’s taken our port and is now letting the kett come back in. I know we have angara who travel there, and they will be attacked if the kett are allowed to make a presence.”

“Exactly my thought. She isn’t in as much control as she’s made people think. A couple of kett heads on spikes does not mean she’s keeping things under control. She’s ruling using fear, and not much besides.”

Evfra scrubbed a hand along the thick part of his neck area and grumbled something under his breath that Reyes’s translator didn’t pick up. “What are you suggesting we do about this?”

“Well,” Reyes glanced over at Keema who’d kept quiet for most of this interaction. “There needs to be another force on Kadara to put pressure on her. One that actually takes angaran needs into consideration.”

“And what, you’re the person who would do that? An alien we know nothing about except that you’re away from your people with this group of exiles who took Kadara from  _ my _ people?”

Making a slight grimace, Reyes said, “I think the kett did that first, actually.”

“Technicalities. This world does not belong to the kett.”

“If they gain more of a foothold, it just might.” Reyes clenched his teeth waiting for an outburst from the man. When nothing came but a low growl, Reyes continued. “Working together, we might be able to assist each in the fight against the kett.”

“We’re not ready for such an alliance, but if you prove your help to me, perhaps I’ll think about it.” Evfra turned from Reyes, keeping the data pad in hand. “I need to know more about Sloane and the rest of the aliens who’ve taken Kadara Port. Get me the information I want, and we’ll see how I feel about you.”

“How will you contact me?”

Evfra waved a hand at Keema. “She’ll receive news for Shena, and you two figure out how that message gets to you.” With another hand wave, they were dismissed. Reyes followed Keema out and back to her shuttle.

Reyes left the meeting with a lot to think about. He’d come to Andromeda to be someone, and this seemed like his best chance at that. Building up the contacts across Andromeda and using them as pawns on a big playing board was just the next step to what he was already doing. Behind the scenes for Aria, he’d seen how things run and the steps people take to get what they want. Using that knowledge, Reyes would create The Collective. He would run it from the shadows, whispering about The Charlatan, a shadow-overload that ran the group. He would create legend around it and initiate a few precise hits against the Outcasts. Always their leadership, never the people living under them.

He organized a little hierarchy of members who worked for The Charlatan, never directly, and set them loose to collect members, and that was how it grew. There were only two people in total who knew The Charlatan’s true identity- Keema Dohrgun and a soldier he took as his personal hitman. He didn’t know the man’s real name, only ever referred to as Tracker, and that was fine. Knowing too much about each other could only lead to problems down the line. 

Sloane reacted as expected. She turned her nose up at them, tried to place hits in return, and mostly ignored their presence vocally. It would take months before they were a competitive force, and that was fine. He just needed people to know about their existence, and they would come flock to him as Sloane squeezed her fist tighter around everyone.

  
  
  



	3. There were no birds to fly

The sea was wet as wet could be,

The sands were dry as dry.

You could not see a cloud, because

No cloud was in the sky:

No birds were flying overhead —

There were no birds to fly.

Scott Ryder  _ hadn’t _ fully thought out the implications of jumping across space and time to a new galaxy; all he’d thought about was needing something new and that Sara was going. He was not going to leave his sister, no matter how he’d prefer to stay away from his father. So, he’d subjected himself to cryo, a disastrous jump through space into The Scourge, losing his father, becoming Pathfinder, and having Sara stuck in a coma. Needless to say, this wasn’t what he was expecting, and Scott was the type to expect the worst. Angara, kett, remnant – Scott had taken a beating getting to know these new aliens, and the fights within his own people dealt some new scars, too. 

Scott and the team reboarded the Tempest, guns still hot and armor filled with dirt and blood. They weren’t speaking and they didn’t need to. They’d taken down a huge kett camp on Eos, had detached a major array of kett communications, and had reestablished a strong foothold surrounding Prodromos. Jaal had even brought up the possibility of a small angaran encampment testing out a site on Eos now that a few planets were stable. They were growing. They were doing well. And they hadn’t died. Despite it all, despite what they were doing, Scott somehow still felt like a fuckup. This should be Sara, not him.

The others went to their rooms, or bunks, or escape pods, and Scott took the ladder down to his room. He went a slow shuffle at a time, body aching beneath the armor, skin slick with sweat and sticking to the under-armor clothing.

“I could ease some of the pain, Scott.” SAM, no, Sam rang through his mind, like his own thoughts, but louder. Clearer.

“Yeah, do that.” His feet touched down on the rough floor at the bottom of the ladder and he let go, stumbling back a couple of steps. He sucked in a breath and passed through automatic doors. “Lock those, please, Sam?” He was beginning to think of the AI as another person of his team. Actually, he’d bonded quicker with Sam than with the others. “Thanks.”

He started the slow process of undressing. Guns were unloaded and put on the coffee table. Hooks and clips were flicked open with tripping, tired fingers. He let the armor thunk to the ground and left it there, in the middle of the room. His sweat-damp clothes he piled next to the armor. Then, naked, he sprawled on the bed. His body was blossomed with bruising; purples, blacks, and greens sprouting like artwork across his pale skin. The years of armor wearing didn’t allow for much time in the sun, and the bruising he acquired seemed to show up worse on him than others.

“Perhaps Lexi could help more than I,” Sam hummed. A flood of pain relief echoed across Scott’s nerves, and he knew Sam was pushing endorphins through his system. They bound to his receptors and his brain embraced the calm. 

“I’ll be fine. Nothing a little sleep and food can’t fix up.”

“Sleep will not heal cracked ribs, Pathfinder.”

Scott sighed. “Lexi can't heal broken ribs either. I just-” He swallowed, looking for the right words. “I just need you and me.”

The neural pathways were quiet for longer than Scott would have thought. “I understand. Would you like me to help you sleep?”

“Mmm,” Scott pulled a pillow under his head. “No. Let’s just talk.”

“Regarding?”

“Anything. Nothing.” Scott rolled onto his side, curling up slightly. His ribs shot pain through the block of adrenaline, but it wasn’t enough to make him change his mind about avoiding Lexi just yet.

Sam hummed through his nerves. It felt almost like biotics, except those were cold and Sam was warm. “You’re doing really well as Pathfinder. I am surprised at your learning curve. Alec took slower to our connection.”

“I don’t know. I feel like I’m faking my way through all of this. We barely scraped our way out of the facility on Voeld. And the Moshae didn’t like my siding with Jaal.” The room was cool and the bed was warm. It was comfortable, which was a nice contrast to the fighting they’d just done.

“Yet, the other angara were happy at their reunion with family. Jaal was happy. Moshae Sjefa still showed us the vault, and now we have Meridian to look for.”

Scott murmured a thoughtful noise. “‘We’, I like that. I don’t know if I could do this without you, Sam.”

“And you won’t have to. I am here, Scott, whenever you need.”

“Sam?”

The AI was in his very thoughts. Scott didn’t have to speak aloud. What he thought, Sam thought. What he felt, Sam felt. Still, the verbal was good. It was necessary. “Yes, Scott?”

“You’re part of me, but more. You can do more.”

“Yes.” Sam was ever patient with him. He always allowed Scott to work through the important thoughts, the things Scott felt he needed to verbalize, even alone.

“You can manipulate and enhance a lot of me.”

“Yes, Scott.”

“Could you--no, _ would _ you like to have sex?”

The air was still in the room and the warmth of Sam felt suddenly dimmed, as if the AI had left him. Scott shivered, pushed out mentally as though feeling for biotics, and sought Sam. He found him, coiled low in Scott’s abdomen, so to speak. The presence was a bubbling warmth slowly spreading. “Sex with you, Pathfinder? Just… us?”

“Yes, Sam.” A vibration on his nerves was the response, and Scott flipped onto his back, muscles tightening at the feeling. “Oh, fu-” He swallowed as another wave washed over his body.

“Like this?” Sam’s voice echoed through the room, and Scott had a minor fear they were broadcasting ship-wide. He stopped caring very quickly.

“Yes, yes like that.” Scott breathed out, running a hand down his own side towards his slowly hardening cock. Sam sent a pool of body heat beneath the hand, following the path with him. Together they reached his erection, and as Scott wrapped his fingers around the shaft, Sam pulsed a bit of biotics, cooling and subtly vibrating beneath his hand. 

“Fuck!” Scott barked out at the unexpected feeling. “Fuck, that’s good, Sam.”

“Slower.” Sam’s voice was close again, in his mind. It was better. Close was better. “Slower, Scott. An even stroke, from base to tip.” 

Scott followed direction well. He gripped himself at his base, slowly stroking upwards. His uncut skin sliding upwards with his fist, the preputial ring caught against his head for a moment, and the push of his hand slid it over the glans. The slide of skin on skin, the cold Sam blossomed beneath, it all felt so good. Scott could almost forget that he was hurt.

“You're doing so well, Scott.” Sam’s voice burst beneath his skin like a touch. They’d talked before about this, about what Scott needed to hear to make it through everything. At first, Scott had been reluctant. But as their private conversations grew, Sam coaxed more and more from him. Sam loved it as much as Scott; their connection, their relationship something more than AI and human working together. The AI was experiencing so much with him, much more than Alec had probably planned on. “What a good boy. Now, use your other hand and reach lower. Touch your hole, Scott. Little circles. Slow and steady.”

Scott obeyed again, the words exactly the ones he needed to hear. He put a finger to the puckered skin of his ass, teasing the entrance with a soft touch. Sam tightened the sphincter muscles, keeping Scott from entering himself when he tried. 

A tsking resounded in his brain and the warmth of Sam retreated from him “Naughty. I did not say you could penetrate. Slow. Circles.”

“Yes, sorry Sam. I'll be good.” He groaned, still stroking his shaft as he reached down to circle a finger at the opening once more. The warmth returned. It spread from his gut, down beneath his hand, and then pooled around his prostate. “Fuck!” Scott cried out at the touch, arching his back off of the bed.

“Don't cum yet, Scott. Not so soon.” 

Scott clenched his jaw shut tight as he tried to focus on Sam's voice and not so much the feelings running through his body. They’d gotten close, they worked well together, but this was something entirely new. And it was going so well. Fuck, but if Scott had only known, he might have let Sam closer, sooner.

“It is going well because we took our time. You’re doing so well, Scott. Such a good boy. Now, enter yourself. Slowly, one finger.” 

Scott started with the middle finger. He slowly edged the tip inside, the sting without lube tightening his gut. Still, he’d done this before and the pain was nice. It was grounding, for now. He worked his finger inside, plunging for that sweet spot that would drag across his prostate. Sam chirped in his ear, coaxing him onwards.

“That's it, such a good boy.” Another thread of cold ran beneath Scott’s hand along his dick. His hips bucked, and he managed to keep his finger inside himself. “Another finger, Scott. The lube is in your drawer. Widen yourself.”

Scott rolled over and pulled open the drawer next to his bed, popping the top on a little tube of lubrication. He made quick work of wetting his ass and coating two fingers. Tossing the closed tube aside, Scott retook his position in the middle of the bed and reached back down to push his fingers back inside of himself. The stretch was quicker and he hissed out a pained breath. 

“Easy, boy. Deeper.” Sam cooed and Scott focused intensely on the voice, on the feeling of his fingers inside of himself. 

He tunneled into the feelings and panted to hear Sam again. Instead, he felt him. Sam pulled on Scott’s muscles, starting along his chest and working down to his thighs, tightening and releasing the muscles in rhythm to Scott’s fingering. Back at the chest, Sam added the burst of cold from biotics, and Scott felt like he was high. He’d completely forgotten to add the other hand to his dick, instead wrapping it in the sheets and gripping tight. His hips jerked with the muscle spasms, and Scott swore he was seeing universes flood his vision. Whole galaxies pin-pricked against the black of his eyelids. The orgasm boiled in his gut, tightened his balls, and at Sam’s words he burst.

“That’s it my good boy. Let go. Cum for me.” There was a strain in Sam’s voice, a breathlessness he couldn’t have that matched Scott’s own panting.

Scott came, a hand fisted in the sheets and the other pumping steadily into himself. Sam had eased up on the muscles, creating instead ripples of cold through his body like shivers. Scott’s cum roped it’s way across his bare torso, making a mess of him and the sheets. It was bliss. He was riding high for minutes, it felt like. And he came down to the sound of Sam’s voice, coaxing him back to normal headspace.

“You were so good, Scott. Such a good boy.” Sam somehow sounded more human in Scott’s head than outside of it. “That was very enjoyable, Scott. Thank you.”

“Thank me?” Scott panted, speaking out loud. “Thank you. That was amazing. That was probably the best orgasm I’ve ever had.” He rolled over, sitting up and putting his feet on the ground. His legs were shaky, but he thought he could stand. “Is the shower open, though?”

“Yes. All crew are in their quarters.” 

“Right. So, how- Did you feel it all from my perspective or, how did that work for you?” Scott stood, stretching and feeling relaxed when he should be in pain from the fight. 

Sam was quiet, perhaps processing how to answer the question. It seemed their connection was complicated, so it didn’t surprise Scott that it would take time. He wrapped a towel around his hips, looked down at the mess he’d left on his chest, and hoped that the other crew members would stay in their rooms while he walked the ten steps to the shower. Luck was with him. Scott made it into a shower stall without seeing any crew.

“Mostly, through your perspective. In a way, I feel what you do. I understood what you would feel with each muscle movement, burst of biotics, or release of chemical. I experienced that through your neocortex.” 

The water warmed up and Scott stepped beneath it, dunking his face beneath the spray and scrubbing. “Mm. And you liked it?” The questioning was something Scott did a lot. Sara had always been the leader, the confident one, and Scott had usually felt as though he was doing everything wrong. Even in this.

“Yes. It was very enjoyable. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Scott murmured into the spray of the water. 

He soaped up, cleaned up, and wrapped himself back in his towel. The pain was starting to set in again. He really should go to Lexi. Throwing on some sweats, he ignored the shirt knowing she’d make him take it off anyway, and padded barefoot down the hallway towards the medbay. Lexi had Vetra on the table, running a scan with the omnitool. Vetra was likewise in comfortable, non-Initiative clothes, and it made Scott relax a touch.

“Spirits, you look like you were hit by a krogran.”

“I feel like I was hit by three.” Scott chuckled, reaching a hand up to grab the opposite shoulder. He rubbed at the shoulder to make the hiding movement less obvious.

Lexi looked over, shook her head, and pointed at one of the open tables. “Take a seat. You’re next.” 

Scott sat down like he was told and looked around the lab. She’d managed to get scans of Jaal, and Scott had acquired some angaran medical datapads which Lexi had on her desk. The scans, of course, were kept on a private drive so as not to breach doctor-patient confidentiality, but Scott knew they were there all the same.

“The bruising is deep, but nothing is actually broken. Here, take these and try to keep some weight off your left leg for a couple of days.” Lexi handed Vetra a couple of pills and shooed her out.

Vetra looked back at Scott with a sympathetic look and a short wave. “Good luck!”

“Bye,” Scott said returning the wave. Then Lexi stepped in the way, eyeing the bruising along his ribcage.

“Sam, did you run a diagnostic?”

“Yes Dr. T’Perro. Scott has hairline fractures along his fourth and fifth right ribs, and his sixth left rib. He has deep bruising to his left thigh, left hip, and left bicep. Negligible bruising and cuts elsewhere.”

Lexi nodded, scanning over Scott herself anyway. Always thorough, which Scott actually liked considering the shit his crew went through since leaving the Nexus. “Mm. Mhm. I’ve got some meds, and you’ll want to ice the ribs. Try sleeping upright. It’ll be easier on your lungs. And Sam?”

“Yes, Dr. T’Perro?”

“Make sure he stops any strenuous activity for the next couple of days.” There was something in her tone that made Scott feel as though she knew what they’d just done.

“Of course, Doctor.”

Lexi nodded. “Good. Here,” she said dropping some pills in Scott’s hand. “Now off you go. Food and rest. And ice those ribs. It’ll keep the swelling down.”

Scott closed his hand on the pills and hopped off of the table. “Thanks, doc.” He strolled back out, heading for the galley. 

Drack was sitting at the table, cleaning his weapons. He looked up, grunted, and went back to the wipe down. “You look like shit, squishy. Do you all break like that?”

“Pretty much,” Scott hummed. He opened a cupboard to find a glass. “What’s with all the crumbs?”

“Don’t know. They were there when I got in here. Probably Liam again.”

Scott sighed. “Don’t fight with him.”

“Tell him to keep my room clean.”

“We have a bunk for y--”

“This is my bunk.”

There was only so far you could argue with a krogan before you just needed to give up. Scott was starting to learn the limit with Drack and this felt like the edges of it. “Right. I’ll talk to Liam.”

Drack gave a nod, or more than that considering the krogan physiology. “Thanks Pathfinder.”

Scott filled the glass. “So what do you think of our operation? You planning on hanging around for a while?” 

“Yeah, you’re better than the rest of the Initiative. And you fight well enough, for a human.” Drack put the gun back together and moved onto the bigger sniper rifle. He had augmentations that he was working on, and Scott watched the calibrations on the cooldown of the reload. “You going to let me get my hands on your rifle?”

With a raised eyebrow, Scott took a subconscious step backwards. “That’s not your rifle, is it?”

“Vetra’s.”

“Mm.” Scott nodded and shrugged a shoulder. “I didn’t think you’d be the type to know a lot about sniper rifles. You’re a bit more...um, up close.”

“Still know guns. Been around a long time, kid.”

“Good point. Well, hang around a bit more and I might hand over all my weapons to you.” He smiled, took the pills with the water, and gave another nod. “I’ll see ya, Drack.” 

“See ya, kid.”

Scott stepped backwards out of the galley, turned and nearly ran into Gil. “Oh, hey. Sorry.” Nope. Too many people. Scott needed to get away, needed to get back to his room.

“Hey, Scott. Any chance I can get a look at the SAM relay you have in your quarters? Not like, right now, but sometime?”

“Uhhh,” Scott sought Sam in his mind, seeking direction. He felt the resounding urge to say ‘no’ and wondered if that was Sam pushing his answer. “Maybe? I don’t know. For what?” He took a tentative step back, towards the doors of his room.

Gil gave a face, one that Scott was finding meant he had plans but wasn’t ready to tell them yet. He gave that face to Kallo a lot. “Just, figurin’ out how AI might help the ship s’all. Help her run a bit smoother when you’re crashing the Archon’s party.”

“Oh. Well, let me talk with Sam about it.” Scott hoped the was enough of an excuse to walk away and he retreated further to his doors, the woosh of them opening a settling noise on Scott’s conscious mind. 

“Right, yeah.” Gil gave a grin and strolled back towards engineering. 

The crew often gathered back there, tinkering on projects or crowding Liam’s couch. Scott should join, eventually. Right now though, he needed away. He ducked into his room and breathed relief when the doors shut. He collapsed back on his bed again, thinking about Lexi’s advice to ice up and rest sitting up. Well, he’d just lain down and he wasn’t pulling his ass back up yet, even for that.

Sam wasn’t going to say anything because he was sharing Scott’s thoughts, knew that even if he did try to say something, Scott wasn’t going to listen to it. Instead, he hummed quietly beneath Scott’s skin, a warmth unlike the natural body heat that Scott produced. It was heavier, too, and something Scott appreciated feeling. There wasn’t a pressure for conversation or answering inane questions. There was just a comfortable, shared presence. 

Scott and Sam stayed locked away in recovery, the Tempest docked at the Nexus, for a couple of days. It was needed, the crew could take their break, and Drack could visit Kesh. It was for the best for all of them. It also gave Scott some time to think about their next step. Moshae Sjefa was safe, Jaal was a semi-permanent fixture of their team, the vaults on Eos, Aya, and Voeld were functioning, and they had some idea of Meridian. Now, Scott needed to decide on going to Elaaden and dealing in whatever mess Morda was building up there or to meet up with a contact on Kadara and track down Vehn Terev for more info on the Archon and Meridian.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A pathfinder had made it to Andromeda. That was the big news around Kadara Port and through the ranks of the angara. Reyes had picked up the information from Keema first, as the man had apparently saved a very important leader to the angara. He’d also, apparently, managed to get some ancient alien tech up and running which was clearing the atmosphere on Eos, a world where early Initiative posts had failed. There was hope blossoming in the ranks once more, and new relationships being built.

That meant two things for Reyes. He had new expectations in his people to manage here in Kadara Port, and he had favors that needed doing for the angara. The rumors from the Collective and others around Kadara Port were questions of being attacked by the Initiative if they decided to take Kadara for themselves. Reyes put out a fake intercepted message saying that Kadara was damned and to be left alone. That cooled some immediate issues, but the angaran requests were a little more complicated.

Apparently, one of their own had betrayed this Moshae person that the Pathfinder had saved, and they wanted their hands on him. Trouble was, he was sitting in Sloane’s prison awaiting a death sentence per the request of Kadara angaras who were separate from the rest of their people. They still, apparently, loved the Moshae enough to hate her betrayer. Sloane’s modus operandi lately was to appease the angara and step on the necks of her own people. Brutal, yet effective.

For his part, Reyes needed to meet with the Resistance again. Things had grown enough that Keema was no longer the only go-between, and Reyes was becoming familiar with a bunch of new faces. When they wanted to meet here, that always posed a risk. If someone found out how closely connected he was to their people, it could spell trouble for him down the line. People here knew Reyes as a top-rate smuggler, nothing more. So, he would climb on a shuttle and hoof it across Kadara to somewhere less conspicuous than the port itself. 

There was a little abandoned place in the middle of nowhere that Reyes liked to use for business. It looked like someone had taken a pod from the Initiative and tried to set up something, but it hadn’t gone well. That meant, it was now free for him. He’d managed to pry open the door and get a small generator to run power to it, which he was able to turn on and off with an old omni-tool-esque device. He ran mild security through it, mostly to watch for people approaching whenever he was there.

Today, the area was clear of people and creatures. A small blessing, but one he’d take. He opened the thing up, left the door unlocked, and propped himself up on one of the crates he’d had stored there. It had some weapons he was hoping to offload with the angaran Resistance. 

His contact showed up not long after. She seemed a bit jumpy, looking over her shoulder as she entered, and a gun in her hand.

“Whoa,” Reyes said, putting his hands up in the air. “No need for that.” He chuckled and tried to keep his body in a relaxed position. No need to give her any reason to be any jumpier. 

She looked at him, then at the gun in her hand, then back. “Right,” she said softly and put the thing away in its holster. “You’re Shena?”

Reyes nodded. “That’s me. What can I do for the Resistance today?” He was thankful they weren’t into code speak; it could get confusing and annoying. If they were going to kill him, they wouldn’t waste words. She was clearly not here to kill him. 

“We need Vhen Terev back with the Resistance. Evfra wants him personally for his crimes.”

“And you think I can get him from Sloane?” Reyes was good, but not that good. Sloane Kelly was a calculating woman, and while she saw his worth, he was not one of her trusted people. “I can’t just waltz in and demand something from her. We’re not that close.”

The woman laughed. “No, I just need you to assist that human Pathfinder. He’s coming to Kadara to meet with Shena and get information. If he can’t get Vehn released, we need you to get him out. Without asking.” Pulling a bag from her back, the woman rifled through the contents and pulled out something that looked like a handheld saw. Except it didn’t have a blade.

“This will cut through the thickest of metals. And we know as well as you that Kadara Port has a network of pipes beneath its floors with space enough for people to crawl through. That could be your way in and out.” She handed the tech over to him.

Reyes took it and was surprised at its weight for how small it was. He flipped it over in his hands a few times and then carefully turned it on. A stream of red light ran from one point to another, and even from the distance at which he held it, Reyes felt the heat at his fingers. He clicked it off.

“Neat trick. Alright. So, I meet with the Pathfinder, tell him what I know about Sloane and the jail, then see what he can do?”

“Pretty much. He saved the Moshae, so we will see what he can do here.”

Made sense enough. Reyes wouldn’t have to do too much unless the Pathfinder messed up. And he’d already been given the tools he would need. But he wanted to know a little more if he was going to agree to this.

“What’s the Pathfinder like? How will I know them when I see them?”

The woman sighed and settled further. She clearly thought this would be a quick drop and run, and really, Reyes couldn’t blame her. Kadara was a dangerous planet in the midst of too many controlling hands. And Resistance members often tried to stay away, taking care of their people in other locations. 

“Here’s a picture of him,” she said and scrolled through a device on her arm. 

Reyes's own message device on his wrist binged and a picture came up. The Pathfinder was a lot younger than Reyes would have thought. He’d heard about them, and had thought they were all older, experienced soldiers from the different races. This young man couldn’t possibly be an N7. He was cute though, Reyes had to admit. “Thank you,” he said and looked back up to see the angaran woman was already strollign out of the little compound.

He scoffed and shook his head. He was used to that behaviour from them and didn’t take it personally. Looking at the picture again, Reyes set the man to his memory and then erased the message.

Back in the underbelly of Kadara Port, Reyes stopped off in Tartarus for a drink. He needed to scout the area around the jail and prepare his information for the Pathfinder, and part of that was making sure he was seen in his normal places. If Reyes looked too much like he was up to something, he could draw the attention of Sloane and her Outcasts.

Reyes had come a long way since the rebellion at the Nexus, since his time with Aria in Omega, but he still felt like something was missing. He worked from the shadows because he was good at that, and he could see how his reach influenced the rest of Kadara Port, but was that enough for him? No one knew Reyes as anything more than a smuggler which went against the idea of  _ being someone _ , didn’t it? 

He tossed back a shot of whiskey and asked Kian for another. This one he took his time with, sipping lightly while leaning on the bar. “You hear about that Pathfinder?”

Kian snorted. “Who hasn’t? Even though we intercepted the message saying the Initiative wasn’t interested in us, we heard the Pathfinder’s ship is headed here.”

Reyes lifted an eyebrow. “Is that so. I’ll have to chat with Colt.”

“Good luck. You know how tipped-lipped he is. Seems like the only guy who can get away with shit around here.”

Holding up his glass of whiskey to the man, Reyes chuckled. “I don’t know, you seem to do pretty well here.”

“I’m underneath Kadara.” Kian shook his head. “Nah, if I was doing well, I’d have Umi’s bar. Not this infested prison set-up.”

Reyes chuckled. “Nah, the bards give it character.” He finished the rest of the drink and slid the glass back. “Thanks, Kian.”

“No problem. Make sure I get that next shipment soon, eh?” He took the glass back through the slip in the bars and turned away.

Walking out and heading for the elevator up, Reyes hoped he could talk Colt into talking today. If he could find out when the Pathfinder was set to dock, he could better make his entrance. First impressions were important after all.

Colt was in a good mood it seemed. When Reyes stepped off the elevator, the man was scrolling through a datapad and  _ not _ yelling at the workers moving crates around him. He looked up at Reyes and smiled. “Got some new merchandise, Vidal?”

“In need of information, actually.”

Lowering the datapad, Colt just looked at him.

“Heard from Kian there’s a Pathfinder coming here?”

Colt sighed and rolled his eyes. “I don’t know why we insist on security measures when everyone knows everything by the end of the fucking day anyway.” He lifted the pad again and scrolled. “Yeah, got an Initiative ship docking tomorrow morning. Why, you think you can get your hands on some of their equipment?”

“Something like that,” Reyes laughed. “Thanks for your help, Colt. I’ll see you around.”

“Wait,” Colt said and put his hand on Reyes's shoulder. “What’s your business up here?”

Reyes scoffed. “Are we really doing this? I’m here to talk with some merchants. You know Sloane allows me free pass to do business here. Keeps everyone’s palms greased.”

“Not mine,” Colt gruffed but let his hand drop. “Fine, go.”

“I’ll get you something nice, Colt, don’t worry.” 

“Fuck you, Vidal.”

Well, Reyes was known enough to get a fuck you nonchalantly, so maybe he  _ was _ making it in this galaxy. Heading in and toward the marketplace, Reyes used his strolling as window shopping at the little market set up in the middle of the port. He was really looking at the pathways beneath the panels they walked on. The pipes seemed to follow a pretty direct order, and around the back of the market was a hallway for back entrances to the shops. 

As he trailed down it, lighting a cigarette and playing off nonchalance, Reyes found himself at a computer consul. It had the markings and sign-in sof the Outcasts. He could get their passwords easily, but the timing might not work out right considering the channels he’d have to go through. Easily didn’t always mean timely. Leaning on a railing and looking at the people wandering the deck below, Reyes typed a message into a datapad. He’d have to wait for a response, but it looked like they would have easy way in at least. Getting the man would be more difficult. Disguise wouldn’t be easy with all the scanning technology set up. But, a backway down and out could work, and Reyes had an idea about that. He leaned on the rail and the plan started to come together.

Slip down from here and have an extraction team waiting. Angara were easier to get into the Port what with Sloane’s concerns for keeping good relations. A small team of them could stuff Vehn in their midst and take off on a shuttle easily enough from the underbelly of Kadara.

Reyes next went to Kralla’s Song and had a look around. He noted the Collective agent standing on the upper floor and thought the man looked right at him, he didn’t acknowledge Reyes. Good. The anonymity was still working. Reyes had put a message out among the Collective that Reyes Vidal was not to be recruited due to conflicting allegiances, and they’d openly ignored his presence around Kadara. Just another way to ensure he wasn’t found out before he was ready to be named.

“Umi,” Reyes smiled as he approached the bar.

“Your regular?” She asked, grabbing a bottle of whiskey from the shelf.

He shook his head. “No, nothing today. Just wanted a quick chat.”

“Twenty credits.”

“Oh, come now Umi.”

“Twenty credits,” she insisted and folded her arms over her chest. She wouldn’t budge without the payment and Reyes knew well there was no way around this.

He sighed and transferred the credits to her. “There. Now just a couple of questions, please?”

“That was one. What’s the other?”

“You’re a tough one, Umi. Alright, there’s going to be a meeting here tomorrow. Any chance you can tell me about this Pathfinder?” He kept his voice low now, and Umi took the hint. She was good people and often indulged Reyes's illegal dealings.

“I might have heard something about that, yeah. Keema stopped by and said he was meeting someone. Guess that someone is you, huh?”

Reyes nodded. “The one and only.”

“Sloane know you’re getting handsy with the Initiative?” Umi pursed her lips and watched him like she was waiting for Reyes to step into some shit.

He laughed. “I don’t know if ‘handsy’ is the right phrase, but what Sloane doesn’t know can’t hurt her.”

“How do you know I’m not reporting to Sloane?”

“Umi, do you really think I think you report to anyone?” Reyes opened his hands and arms in an invite for her to argue the point. She just smiled. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow then. Now get out of here before you draw attention.”

He gave her a little salute and headed back out. This was going to be the easiest connection Reyes ever made. 

  
  



	4. Were Walking Close at Hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all just cliche precious trash that I’m creating. Tropes upon tropes, but I love it all. Changed some conversations to better incorporate SAM’s influence.

The Walrus and the Carpenter

Were walking close at hand;

They wept like anything to see

Such quantities of sand:

If this were only cleared away,'

They said, it  _ would _ be grand!'

When Reyes descended the stairs in Kralla’s Song the next morning, his whole being froze for a moment. He’d been skeptical of those who believed in love at first sight, but he certainly knew what lust at first sight felt like and this was the worst case he’d ever had. This human Pathfinder was exactly Reyes’s type when it came to men, right down to that nervous puppy dog look he wore on his face.

Reyes straightened his jacket and smoothed his hands over his leather pants to give himself a moment to regain his composure. He cleared his throat and then strode forward to meet this man. “You look like you’re waiting for someone,” he crooned and leaned up against the bar next to him. He tapped the bar and Umi put two shots of Whiskey down with a glare. 

Reyes pushed one towards the Pathfinder.

The man turned and looked at the drinks then at Reyes. He had striking blue eyes under the longest fucking lashes. They locked gazes for a few heartbeats before he answered. “I, uh, I’m not here to drink, but thank you.”

With a shrug, Reyes downed the drinks himself. “Shena,” he said. He put a glass down and held out a hand to the other man. “But you can call me Reyes. I hate codenames.”

The Pathfinder flicked his eyes to the hand and back to Reyes’s. He reached out but it felt tentative and Reyes melted all the more. There was something about sensitive guys that always got him right in the gut.

“Scott Ryder. I was expecting um…” Scott pulled his hand back and grimaced like he’d done something wrong. “Someone angaran.”

Reyes laughed aloud and shook his head a little. “The Resistance pays me to supply information. Among other things. It’s easier for an alien to get certain things.”

Scott visibly retracted, reaching a hand across his chest to grab at his opposite shoulder and scratch--a poorly disguised defense mechanism. “So you’re a smuggler?”

With a shrug, Reyes tipped his head toward the open windows in the bar. He walked with Scott over to the quieter corner and leaned his forearms on the ledge. “Something like that. Your man, Vehn Terev, was arrested by Sloane Kelly, leader of the Outcasts. Word spread about what he did to Moshae Sjefa and now the people are calling for his execution, and Sloane?” Reyes laughed and gestured out at the Port. “She’s a woman of the people.”

Scott made a face like he’d tasted something sour. “Dress it up however you want. Sloane’s a criminal. I saw how her outfit conducts itself at the gates to this place.”

He must have run into some of Sloane’s collectors. Not the nicest people, especially in the view of someone who seemed as upright as this man. Reyes couldn’t blame him for his opinion of the woman, but it also put a tricky dynamic to this budding relationship. If Reyes wanted Scott as an ally, he needed to prove he wasn’t as bad as the others on Kadara. He needed to prove himself useful. 

“Look, you work for the Initiative. Sloane was part of the uprising on the Nexus so I doubt she’ll give Vehn up easily--”

“I’m taking him, with or without her permission,” Scott interrupted. Those blue eyes had turned hard and matched the slash of a frown now on his lips. He might have been the button-upped type in way of morals, but it seemed like he was willing to push at boundaries to do the right thing. 

Reyes grinned at his brashness. “We’re going to be friends, you and I.” He watched Scott raise a questioning eyebrow, but he stayed quiet so Reyes went on. “If you’re really set on doing this no matter the way, I might have a backup plan for you. You work on Sloane and I’ll set something up with the Resistance.” 

Without waiting for the man to disagree, Reyes started out of the bar. He only looked back when Scott spoke up.

“How will I get ahold of you if things go South on my end?”

Turning around completely, Reyes smiled, winked, and turned back around to walk out of the bar. He jogged up the stairs, needing to leave now before he blew everything. He was barely hanging on to himself by the time he left Scott’s presence, and that wasn’t a feeling he’d had in a long time. It wasn’t usual for someone to work their way so deeply into Reyes’s feelings so quickly. 

He was more than happy to help this man, and the plan was already set so he decided to slip into Sloane’s throne room and watch from the shadows. In setting up a way to get the prisoner out, he’d found a backroom with a panel that was loose enough that he could spy in on the room. Walking with confidence was the first step. Fewer people stopped you if you looked like you knew where you were going and seemed to have something to do. No stopping to chat with people; head down and walk steady.

He didn’t have to wait long before Scott was being admitted into the throne room. “Focus defenses here and here. The kett have been quiet for too long.”

Fuck that, Sloane had left them alone for too long. Reyes had a full pattern of their movements mapped out and his people were fighting them back, along with some small Resistance crews.

Reyes watched Scott as the krogan guard pushed him forward with the butt of his gun. Scott jerked away from the touch and shot a glare back at the beast. He came to stand before Sloane as she slouched in her chair and the man fucking wrecked it.

“That’s quite the throne.” His voice was cast deeper than the meeting, controlled and filled with bile at the display before him. It put a shiver through Reyes. “Should I bow? Kiss your ring?” Reyes had never heard such disdain cast directly at a woman so powerful before. It was delicious.

“Very funny,” Sloane glared. “So, what brings a Pathfinder to our humble port?”

“Vehn Terev,” Scott said and crossed his arms. The way he cocked his hip to one side made Reyes grin. This man was fire, and Reyes was glad to be on his side.

“What’s he to you? And don’t lie to me.” She pulled a leg up, tossed an arm over it and made like she wasn’t put off in the least by the Pathfinder’s attitude. Reyes had been around her enough to know that she was seething under this veneer, but also in a place where she couldn’t yet risk pissing off the man before her. There hadn’t been contact with the Initiative in a long time, and this could make or break it for her.

“I need him so I can infiltrate a kett flagship.”

Reyes’s whole body went cold. The man was more than fire, he was a fucking time bomb. What the hell would someone want to willingly go on a kett vessel for?

“You obviously have no love for the kett. I’m doing you a favor.”

Sloane wasn’t buying it yet. “Kadara is an angaran port.” What a load of shit. “They want Vehn dead and I want to keep them happy.”

“This is bigger than local politics,” Scott insisted and dropped his hands again. Something had slightly changed in the man, relaxed him even though he was getting closer and closer to pissing Sloane off.

“You don’t need Vehn--you need his intel. Talk to him before I put his head on a spike.” Sloane leaned forward, thinking she had won this by the narrowed eyes and half-grin in the corner of her lips.

Reyes thought Scott still had a chance, though. Unti lhe absolutely fucking blew it. The man was not subtle in his disgust, that was for sure.

“Just point me to where you’re holding him. I’ll take him and there won’t be any trouble,” he growled. 

“No, there won’t be,” Sloane said and flicked her fingers toward him.

The brute of a turian named Kaetus moved forward, drawing his weapon. Shit, they were going to kill Scott! Reyes would never get there in time to stop it from happening. All he could do was watch and hope Scott handled things. And Kaetus made a mistake. Scott was clearly militarily trained, so when Kaetus brought the gun to his chest, Scott smacked at the gun, turning it around in Kaetus’ hands and breaking the man’s hold on it. Scott had it armed and facing Kaetus in seconds.

“Drop it, now!” Sloane yelled as she got to her feet and drew her weapon on Scott.

Reyes held his breath, watching, hoping.

“You first,” Scott said in a steady voice. But Reyes saw the tick, the slight clench in his jaw and the flick of his finger on the gun that gave away his nerves. Bluster he could, but Scott was scared.

“Get out, or I’ll put you down,” said Sloane.

“Thanks for the hospitality,” said Scott and he backed out slowly, keeping the gun trained on her the entire time.

Moving quickly, Reyes needed to get out of this space and back to where he could meet up with Scott and give him the next part of the plan. He had hoped, somewhere small in his mind, that Scott would have talked Sloane into releasing Vehn, but that spectacle had shown him a lot more about Scott. Scared, but still willing to do what needed to be done.

Slipping through the back halls, Reyes posted up by the vendors out in the open area. Scott came out a moment later and looked around, first glancing at Kralla’s Song then scanning until he spotted Reyes.

Giving him a smile and a wave, Reyes took a deep breath. This man was going to be the death of him, he predicted. “Pathfinder, over here.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Finding the buried transmitter was easy enough work, and Scott had been able to solve a little investigating for Reyes while he’d been at it. It seemed that property, if that’s what it could be called, out in the Bad Lands was passed quickly between people. Still, the knife was proof enough of Roekaar involvement. It wasn’t something Scott had wanted to deal with since he was still figuring out angaran relations with Jaal, but the murders needed to be dealt with.

So, Scott answered Reyes's message and met the man in the Roekaar hideout. With Reyes's explosive entrance, the fight had been short. Sam called out shots to the team, and afterwards, Scott cornered the smuggler on his own. He waved off his team to check on the Nomad. 

“The streets of Kadara are safe again. You did good, Ryder,” Reyes grins as he strolls up the stairs toward Scott.

That tone in the man’s voice makes Scott very happy that he’d sent the others away. In his head, Sam says,  _ Your heart rhythm is not regular, Scott. _

_ I know. It’s that damned accent. _

_ He likes you. You can see the elevated pulse at his throat. _

Scott shivered at Sam’s discovery and offered a smile to Reyes.

“Don’t worry,” Reyes continued. “I’ll let all the important people know who to thank.”

“We make a pretty good team,” Scott offered and leaned against the doorway. Then he suddenly feared that he was standing the man’s way. What if Reyes didn’t want to talk? That flirty tone could have been something Scott was making up. 

But Reyes just grinned back and settled into a relaxed stance, eyes locked on Scott’s. Scott flushed and he heard Sam actually chuckle in his mind.  _ He likes you, Scott. Relax and talk with him _ .

“Careful,” Reyes said and stepped closer. He had to lean down to put his mouth to Scott’s ear. “I’ll start thinking you like me.”

_ Would that be so bad? _ Sam asked.

“Would that be so bad?” Scott parroted, turning his face so that Reyes and he were mere inches apart, breath mingling. His adrenaline was still high post-battle and it helped to keep his mind here, in the moment, hyperfocused on the gorgeous face in front of him.

“Depends. Don’t be a stranger, Pathfinder-”

“Scott,” he interrupted.

Reyes stopped, grinned, and then said, “Don’t be a stranger, Scott.” He started to turn, to end their conversation.

Without thought, Scott reached out and snagged Reyes's wrist. “Wait.”

Again, Reyes stopped. He was still smiling, an eyebrow lifting in question.

“I-” But Scott didn’t know what to say.

_ Thank him for his help with Vehn. _

“Thanks, for you know. With Vehn.” He let go of the man’s wrist, rubbing his palms over his thighs, the feeling of armor cold beneath his hot hands.

“You’re welcome. Find me in Tartarus if you ever need help again.” He laughed. “Or want a drink. You still haven’t had a drink with me yet.”

Reyes Vidal was going to be the death of Scott, he just knew it. The man was everything he wasn’t supposed to be friends with and everything he was lusting for. Sam wasn’t helping.

_ I believe I was quite helpful. I made it clear what he was feeling, and you acted upon it successfully. Perhaps you should find time to have a drink with the man. _

Scott shook his head and went back out to his team. “Yeah, as soon as I get the monoliths running.”

They’d gotten the monoliths fired up on Kadar, but the air still reeked of sulfur and burning. Drack was making bets that he could drink the water from the pools now, and Lexi begged him not to. But it wasn’t Drack’s bets that brought them back to Kadara Port. Scott still needed to find a way to get a colony on Kadara, and that meant clearing up some of the political shit between the Outcasts and Collective. While he had not made friends with Sloane Kelly, that didn’t exactly bother him. And he wasn’t afraid of stepping foot on her ‘territory’ just to prove a point.

But it wasn’t all of that either. He was drawn back here by something a lot more primal.

Reyes Vidal, the sultry, silk-voiced, smooth talker who’d practically crawled into Scott’s armor with the flirting. Scott had enjoyed it, and Sam seemed right there with him. Every time they worked together, Scott felt more and more of a connection to the man, and he did not want to ignore it. Neither did Sam.

After checking in with the team, Scott had gotten an email from Reyes asking for help. Since they hadn’t left Kadara yet, it made sense to check in with the man personally. Payback for all the help Reyes’d done for him. Plus, they still needed to deal with the Collective and Outcasts if they wanted to settle the place, so getting another look around could reveal a solution.

“Will you be going to Tartarus, Pathfinder?” The question from Sam was off-handed enough that it could be mistaken as blank curiosity, but he and Scott were too close for the implication to be missed. Scott and Sam both had enjoyed the flirtatious man.

Scott hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe. I want to check out the slums a little closer, so maybe.” It was a throw-away thought neither of them needed, but with Cora, Vetra, and Drack in tow, it helped. They didn’t know about the email and didn’t need to.

“Pathfinder,” asked Cora, ever the professional. “I heard a rumor about a doctor working down here. We should find him and see what help we can be.” She nodded toward the crates that seemed to make up some homes for the bottom dwelling residents. “A little help from us could go a long way in creating a space for a colony here.”

“Good thought,” Scott said. He walked past the doors to Tartarus, grimacing to himself. He tried not to eye it as they passed, not ready to let anyone besides Sam know about his feelings for Reyes.

The team scoured the belly of Kadara Port and the bitter taste in Scott’s mouth grew. As much as he wanted to save these exiles, bring them back to the Initiative ranks, the more he saw of Kadara the more he questioned that possibility. They were producing a drug and had people curled in crates, high on the stuff. There was even a dead woman behind supplies that no one seemed to care about. He called Lexi down to retrieve her body, and Drack escorted her. 

Then he split off from the others, telling them to find out what they could. He was going to talk with Reyes for more information. It wasn’t a lie, but it was still sly on his part. He almost felt bad about it.

_ Have a drink with him this time _ , Sam said.

_ I’m working _ .

_ One won’t hurt. In fact, you are nervous enough that it might help, Scott. _

_ We’ll see. _ Scott headed into Tartarus, glancing over his shoulder and finding his team had not followed. Good.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Reyes sat on the couch in Tartarus, flicking his fingers over a datapad that had his collected information from the botched job. Cargo fucking swiped from under his nose; he needed a new middleman. Shit, he should have taken the job himself, but with the tension so high on Kadara what with that handsome Pathfinder pissing on everyone’s deal, Reyes didn’t feel right about leaving the Port without a damned good reason. Honestly, some cargo wasn’t good enough, no matter how much the client had paid. 

No, he hoped his email to the Pathfinder had gotten through and then he could get some help with this shit. Having the Pathfinder working in Kadara Port again would keep everyone on their toes and stop them from their conniving for a short time at least. Probably long enough for Reyes to fix this fuck-up.

That wasn’t the only reason he’d called the man for help. No, Scott Ryder was someone he wanted to be closer to for reasons that had nothing to do with his status in the Initiative and everything to do with the way he filled out that armor. Okay, it may also have been about the easy way he flirted back with Reyes, the way he looked at Reyes as though he was--

Reyes shook his head to clear his thoughts. Focus, damn it. You’ve got a job to fix. 

Just as he set the datapad down and made to leave the room, the doors to his little space popped open. In strode Scott himself. A glance behind showed the man didn’t have any of his team in tow. So, business between the Pathfinder and himself alone? Promising.

He grinned wickedly and kicked his feet up on the table, stretching his arms over the back of the couch. “I was hoping to see you, Pathfinder.”

Scott smiled back, stopping a few steps from where Reyes sat. “You always so needy, Reyes?”

The sound of his name from Scott’s lips was intoxicating. Reyes had not fallen so quickly for someone in quite some time. He really needed to nip that in the bud before it became a problem.

“You should stop being so useful,” he shot back and laughed. “Drink while we talk? I hate to drink alone.”

Scott glanced at the bottle on the table and then gave a short shake of his head. “I’m still working; maybe afterwards. You said you needed help?”

Some distance on Scott’s part, too? Perhaps they both realized the flirting would only end poorly. “Zia Cordier, a rival, lifted some cargo I was moving for a client.” Reyes put the drink aside for now. “We worked together so well last time, I thought you might help again.” He winked at Scott, unable to help his flirtatious nature.

Scott lifted an eyebrow at this and cocked his hip out. How they’d made armor like what he wore be able to cling to his fucking curves, Reyes would never know, but he could damn well appreciate it.

“She stole from  _ you _ ? That seems dangerous.” If Scott was trying for distance, he shouldn’t cant his voice down like that.

Then, another voice spoke up from Scott’s omni-tool. “What did she steal?” The voice was clearly AI, and a nice British accent to boot, but something about it sounded unlike any AI Reyes had heard before.

“Are we being listened in on, Pathfinder?” Reyes asked and stood from his seat, folding his arms over his chest.

“No!” Scott rushed to say, holding up his hands and pressing closer. “That’s Sam, my AI. We, um…” He frowned and looked down, clearly searching for some word. 

SAM was the one to answer. “We are symbiotic. You do not get one without the other.”

“That,” Scott said. “Sam and I are a joint package. We do everything together.”

“Everything?” Reyes asked, putting a lilt to his voice and a wicked grin in the corner of his lips. He watched Scott’s face flame. The pale ones always blushed so wonderfully, right to the tips of his ears.

And then that fiery spirit he saw in Sloane’s throne room came back. “Yes,  _ everything. _ ” His voice was quiet, deep, but Reyes heard him just fine.

“Well, fuck. That’s…” With a deeper smile and hooded eyes, Reyes pitched his own voice lower. “That’s good to know.”

“So,” Scott cleared his throat and rubbed at his shoulder, though it likely did little considering the body armor. “What did Zia take?”

“No idea. Client paid extra for privacy. Considering my fees,” Reyes chuckled, “it must be valuable.” He eased his arms down, relaxing as they stood close now.

“You didn’t check?” Asked SAM, clearly the least trusting of the two.

“Honor’s got a price and the client paid it,” Reyes said matter of factly. 

“How’d this rival of yours get ahold of your cargo? I didn’t expect you to be easily taken advantage of.” Scott’s eyes didn’t leave Reyes’, but he could see the hesitation of the man in the way he dipped his chin down.

“Heh, if you ask nicely, you’d be amazed what you can get out of me,” Reyes teased and watched Scott blush all over again. “But, her usual way. She got my middleman drunk, then stole his ship.”

SAM pipped up again. “It sounds as though you know from experience.”

“Please,” Reyes scoffed. “I keep to a three drink maximum when I’m on a job.”

“Right,” Scott said and sighed. “I’ll help, but we cut the profits. 50/50.”

With a laugh, “Sixty forty. Final offer.”

The way Scott’s lip got pouty when he thought was cute. Reyes's eyes flicked to his mouth and stayed there a bit longer than they should have. “Deal,” Scott said.

Reyes thought Scott might be a little too ready to help considering how little they knew of each other, but he wasn’t going to question the help. “Zia spends time at Kralla’s Song when she comes to port, so I thought we could go there and question Umi. See if Zia’s been around, who she’s met with. Umi tends to hear all sorts of helpful things.”

“I have to drop my weapons off at my ship before I can get through the gates. I’ll meet you there?” Scott took a few steps back, breaking the connection that they’d built a moment ago.

Reyes nodded and watched Scott head out.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Upon entering Kralla’s Song again, Scott saw the opportunity and  _ had _ to take it. He saw Reyes leaned against the counter, not looking toward the front. So, Scott came up quietly behind him. “It looks like you’re waiting for someone.”

Reyes turned his head enough to side-eye him, that stupid smirk on his lips again. “That’s  _ my _ line.”

“Ugh,” Umi groaned loud enough to get both of their attention. “You want a drink or a room.”

_ Both would be nice, _ Sam snarked in Scott’s head. He might not have humor down, but he had sarcasm in spades.

Scott tried to bury the laugh, but it came out as an amused scoff.

“Information, actually,” Reyes said.

Watching her face twist, Scott could tell Umi didn’t hand out information easily. So when she asked for money, it didn’t surprise him. “That’ll cost you more than a round of drinks.”

“My...friend’s good for it.” 

The way Reyes drew out the phrase, as if seeking for the right way, had Scott glancing at him with a question in his eyes. And then the words actually settled in. “Hey,” he said, slapping Reyes's chest with the back of his hand. “I’ll expect a favor in return, you know.”

Reyes swatted his hand away and chuckled. “You’re one person I’ll happily owe something.”

Umi let out another hard groan of disgust.

That actually thrilled Scott. Clearly, there was something going on between himself and Reyes if other people were noticing. And then Scott felt a mild panic. What if his team found out? They wouldn’t like him dallying with some criminal from Kadara. Well, Vetra and Drack had contacts here, so maybe-

“What do you want to know?” Umi asked and folded her arms over her chest, eyeing Reyes.

“Zia Cordier. She been around recently?” Reyes asked.

“You mean your ex? Yeah, she was here.”

Scott’s breath stuck. Ex?  _ Calm down, Scott,  _ Sam urged.  _ Ask him about her. See what he says. _

“Ex? As in girlfriend?” Scott tried to sound teasing. What if he’d been reading into this and Reyes was straight but just had that tone about him? Scott was pansexual himself, but it wasn’t always easy to tell someone’s orientation. Okay, it was never easy for Scott. He’d put his foot in his mouth a few times.

“Girlfriend is such a strong word,” Reyes laughed nervously. “We had drinks occasionally. So,” he coughed and looked away. “She was here?” 

_ He was nervous. He likes you, Scott. _

_ Fine. _

“Yeah. Met with a salarian.” Umi gestured toward a now-empty table. “Shifty guy I’d never seen before. Maybe it was the Charlatan.”

“Anything is possible. You overhear their conversation?”

Scott was watching Reyes's face. He didn’t make much of a reaction toward the Charlatan comment, and Scott had to guess he didn’t know who the person was. Shame, Scott needed some answers about this place and hoped to find all the answers with Reyes.

“They were planning to meet someone at Spirit’s Ledge.”

Scott had that placed marked on his map. A few nearby outlaws, some wild beasts holed up nearby. Not much there other than a rocky valley.

“Thanks Umi.”

“Whatever,” she said, already walking away. “You didn’t hear it from me.”

Reyes turned to Scott again. “If you check the meeting spot, I’ll follow the Collective lead. Doubt Zia was meeting the Charlatan, but you never know.”

Scott looked at him for a moment.  _ Lean closer, on the bar _ , Sam instructed. So he did.  _ Tease him about his ex. _ “Is this about getting your cargo back, or one upping an ex?” Scott asked and ran a tongue over his lips. He was nervous, but Sam’s coaching helped.

“Why, Ryder….are you jealous?”

Yes, Scott wanted to yell at the man.  _ Calm. Take a breath, _ said Sam. “Just answer the question,” Scott pressed with false bravado.

Through a laugh, “It’s about the cargo.” Reyes grinned and then leaned back, face falling to professional once more. “I’ll work my contacts. Give me a call when you get the meeting spot.”

Scott nodded and stood up straight now, too. He watched Reyes walk out and sighed. “That was nerve wracking.” 

_ You did fine, Scott. _

_ I’m not so sure. I can’t get a read on him, flipping so easily between flirty and professional. _

_ You’re doing the same, Scott. It’s all part of the game. _

_ How do you know so much about it, Sam? _

The AI laughed in his mind and Scott felt a happy burst come over him.  _ There’s a lot I was programmed with, and so much more I’m learning with you. It’s all in the eyes, the pupils to be exact _ . 

Scott shook his head and went back to his ship. He gave the crew time to regroup, and he let them know about his deal with Reyes. There were mild protests.

“How do you know you can trust him?” Cora asked.

“Yeah,” Vetra stood next to her. “You’re a little too…”

“Innocent?” Provided Liam.

“Definitely,” Peebee pipped up happily. “You guys had better watch his back. He’s too precious for this work.”

“Stop it,” Scott grumbled. He wasn’t innocent or precious. He was covered in battle wounds and was leading a Pathfinder team. He was fighting aliens and kicking absolute ass. And he’d said it all outloud apparently.

“Kicking ass and being innocent are two different things, kid,” said Drack. “You’ve got naive plastered all over you, and that’s part of why I signed on.”

“I’m not naive!” Scott argued.

And then Sam betrayed him. “You rather are, Pathfinder. From the data I’ve collected on the team, you are the most likely to be emotionally manipulated and have the most reason to be protected. But that is also your strength in leading this team. You’ve won them over and they will all protect you.”

There was a chorus of agreement and suddenly Scott wanted to be safely tucked into his armor again. He needed movement, something physical and distracting. “Right, I’ve got to meet Reyes. Drack and Vetra, suit up and meet me at the Nomad.” He scurried away before he could hear anyone else accuse him of being precious, naive, and emotional. Was he those things? Maybe, but he wasn’t ready to be analyzed by his entire crew.

_ I apologize if I made you uncomfortable, Scott. _

_ It’s fine. _

_ You are clearly upset. _

_ I’m not--  _ He took a breath, stepped into his room and started putting the armor on. “I’m not upset. I’m just not used to being the main point of conversation. I tried to keep my head down in the military. Any attention I got was due to my father, and it was uncomfortable. Especially after he was kicked out of-- everything.”

“I apologize.”

“Thank you, Sam. Can you put a reminder somewhere that I need to have my assault rifle checked? I think it jammed earlier.”

“It’s on your calendar set to give a reminder email, Scott.”

“Thanks.”

Suited up, Scott headed out. The ride out with Drack and Vetra was uncharacteristically quiet. Fortunately, the meeting spot was being prowled by some large beasts and the three had some fun taking the predators down.

“Reyes? I found a datapad with what looks like a navpoint.”

“Must be where Zia’s hiding the cargo. Probably left that behind for the buyer.”

“Whatever happened to just going to a store?”

“Sloane takes a cut from all, uh, ‘official’ sales in Kadara. Gotta get creative if you wanna go around that.” He was clearly speaking from experience. It was likely how he’d ended up working so closely with the resistance, and had such a stealer reputation as a smuggler. Why Sloane put up with him, Scott couldn’t guess.

_ Likely, he’s getting her things she wants as well. _

_ I don’t like that. Sloane is an evil slug that needs putting down. _

_ I agree, Scott. _

Sam spoke up through the omni-tool, pinging through to Reyes. “Did you find anything on your end?”

“The salarian is a fence,” Reyes answered, not one bit put-off by Sam joining their conversation. “No direct connection to the Collective. My guess is Zia met him to find potential buyers. Let’s follow up on those coordinates. I’ll meet you there.”

“Will you actually be there, or sneak around and set explosives again?” Scott’s voice was teasing again and he grinned while he waited for an answer. 

“Haven’t decided,” Reyes said back. “But I’ll be there with you. Promise.”

“Mhm.” Scott laughed and turned back to the Nomad. “See you there.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Reyes is a better man than you think,” Scott said and it struck Reyes to his core. 

Of course, the Pathfinder didn’t know any better, but the conviction with which he said it made Reyes finally feel a spark of something beyond the dull throb of ‘life’. He looked over at Scott, saw the set way he looked at Zia, with fire in his eyes, and Reyes wanted to crumble and explode at the same time. Did Scott actually  _ see _ him?

“Oh honey,” Zia scoffed and shook her head, ruining the moment. “You’ve no idea how wrong you are. But you will.”

Reyes couldn’t stand the thought of her speaking to Scott, especially not with that condescending tone. Dropping his voice to an acidic low tone, Reyes growled, “Leave him out of this.” If he didn’t want answers so badly, he could have shot her right between the eyes for daring to look at Scott that way.

And that condescending look turned on him. Zia laughed half-heartedly. “You must really like this one Reyes.”

This one, she said, as though Reyes had many people lining up at his door. He snuck a glance at Scott, hoping that wasn’t how the man heard it. Quickly, needing this turned around, Reyes yelled, “Cut the shit. What’s this all about?”

“You’ve been taking all the good jobs in Kadara.” Zia frowned. “It’s gotten more than  _ my _ attention.”

“So what,” Reyes questioned. “The local smuggling union got together and decided to take me down?” Honestly, he’d heard crazier.

“Something like that.” Zia pulled a gun and the sound of the safety clicking off resounded in the small, crate-filled room. 

Reyes rubbed his forehead, a headache coming on in seconds. “Ah, shit.”

“Move in,” Zia ordered.

And the shooting started. Scott leapt into action before Reyes even had his gun completely out. Watching the man move was like watching art; he twisted around bodies that dropped from his bullets, leapt over crates to duck into cover, and sprayed biotics that threw men in heavy armor against walls. He was a fucking god and Reyes wanted to worship him.

Leveling his own gun, Reyes did his part but it wasn’t such an artful display as Scott put on. Reyes moved with precision and efficiency, knocking off targets as they came to him, not moving through the battle like Scott. 

When it was all over, Reyes felt an emptiness creeping in. He’d just dispatched an ex, someone he’d thought of as something like a friend. Bodies of people he knew and worked with lay about the metal floors, leaking blood. This was all his fault. He’d overstepped and created more of a presence for himself as he moved slowly in position to take on Sloane. He’d created some competition among the others that clearly couldn’t be ignored, and they were now dead because Reyes had brought along the Pathfinder.

Standing the midst of it all, feeling lost, a sudden hand on his shoulder nearly made Reyes jump out of his skin. Scott was there, pulling back the helmet from his head to better look at Reyes.

“You okay?” Scott asked in nearly a whisper.

No, he wanted to say. I’m not okay and I need someone in my life to catch me while I spiral down this hole. What he said instead was, “I knew I wasn’t popular, but I never thought the other smugglers would team up against me.” Needing to get the fucking sad look off Scott’s face, he added, “Kind of flattering actually,” in as joking a tone as he could muster.

The look stayed and the hand fell from his shoulder. “They might try again. You could still be in danger.”

Chuckling, “You’re worried about me?” He really wanted to know what the man was thinking even if his tone read teasing.

“Reyes.” Scott’s tone was a warning. He was being serious, and that was somehow scarier than the alternative. If Scott really did like him, was worried about him, then Reyes had him fooled.

“Relax.” Reyes wasn’t sure what to do now. “I know they’re coming now. They won’t get the jump on me.” He sighed. “All that effort and no credits to show for it.”

Scott put a hand up to his neck, rubbing along the back. He up at Reyes through long fucking lashes, shy. “Not everything has to be about credits.”

That was it. The man had fallen for Reyes, and he was wholly to blame for his bad decisions. “That’s true.” He couldn’t help it though. He  _ needed  _ Scott to like him. “What you said back there...about me being a better man?” That’s what he so craved to be. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Scott reached out a hand again, resting it on Reyes's upper arm. “I meant it, Reyes. You’ve proven yourself a good man to me. I couldn’t have gotten Vehn out without you, and you’ve been the only one on Kadara to help me with anything.”

Reyes tried to laugh it off, patting Scott on the back. “Well, a pair of blue eyes like yours walks up asking for help? I couldn’t say no.” He laughs and then looks around. It’s still a bloody mess. He sighed heavily “I should clean up this mess. Zia was a piece of work, but...it feels wrong to leave her out in the open.”

Scott took less than a moment to glance around and then nodded. “Let me help.”

“I’ve got it, really. You should get back to your team.”

SAM’s voice sounded through the omni-tool. “The team does not expect you back for another few hours. I’ve already alerted them to your location and wellbeing.”

“See?” Scott smiled and set his helmet on a crate. “I’ve got time. And this is a lot to do on your own. Please, let me help.”

And what the fuck was Reyes supposed to say that look he was being given? Turns out, nothing. He found he could not say no to Scott, and wasn’t ready to leave his company anyway.

They worked up a sweat, cleaning up burying dead bodies. Scott was out of his armor pretty quickly, sleeves rolled up. Reyes dropped the top half of his jump suit, tying the arms around his waist like a belt. It was hours later when they were finally sitting on the edge of Reyes's shuttle. 

Scott was kicking his feet, his hands out behind him to hold him in a half-reclined position. Reyes was next to him, elbows on his knees and sweat still on his forehead.

“Thank you, Scott. That was…”

“Way too much work for one person?”

Reyes chuckled. “Definitely.”

“You’re welcome.”

They sat quietly for a long time, watching the sun slowly sink behind Kadara’s mountains. Scott kept kicking his legs slowly, and Reyes eventually collapsed onto his back and stared up at the man.

“I don’t think I’m as good a person as you seem to think,” Reyes said.

Scott looked down at him and Reyes could see thoughts racing in his mind, his jaw working silently and lips pursing. “Maybe not, but you’ve been good to me.”

Reyes scoffed. “How’s that?”

“Like I said, I know I’m not liked here, and yet here you are. Still trusting me to have your back.”

As they looked at each other, something played over Scott’s face that Reyes couldn’t place. It was almost like he was listening to another voice that Reyes couldn’t hear, and he wondered if it was SAM, the AI. Then, before Reyes could react, Scott leaned himself over Reyes. A hand on either side of Reyes's shoulders, Scott dipped down and pressed his lips to Reyes’. 

He froze just a moment before reaching a hand up and around Scott’s neck and kissing him back. It was a long, slow kiss. It was getting to know one another. It ended suddenly when Scott’s omni-tool started beeping out a call.

“Fuck,” Scott grumbled and pulled away. He jumped off the shuttle’s edge and paced a few steps away. “Yeah?” he asked into it.

“Just checking in. Thought you’d be back by now and wanted to make sure you hadn’t run into any trouble.” The voice was female, straight-laced human. Probably military of some type. Reyes thought he remembered a woman on Reyes's team who might fit the bill.

“I’m good Cora. About to head back now. Everyone on the ship?”

“Yes. And we’ve got news regarding the Leusinia. There are some refugees saying they came from the ark.”

“What? That’s fantastic,” Scott said, sounding excited.

Reyes wanted to feel that with the man, but he knew that meant Scott was leaving and flying himself into something most likely dangerous. He knew the man’s job called for that kind of thing, but seeing how Scott maneuvered the fight today just settled in Reyes's mind how  _ much _ danger the Pathfinder likely saw. After that kiss, Reyes had to admit, the thought of this man running into the danger sat hard in his throat.

“I’ll be back shortly.”

“Good.” Cora seemed to have broken the connection as the omni-tool went dark.

“Off to save the galaxy?” Reyes teased, sitting up on his elbows to look at the man. He grinned at him, hiding the worry deep beneath.

Scott smiled softer. “Guess so. I’ll uh...I’ll come back as soon as I can. I mean, probably. There’s a lot to do here still.”

“You owe me a drink, Scott Ryder.”

“Deal,” Scott said with a widening smile. He looked like a boy in a candy shop as he back stepped toward the Nomad, waving at Reyes.

And then he was gone, and Reyes felt his mind spinning with questions he wanted to ignore for a while. He could drown those questions at Tartarus.


	5. And Shed a Bitter Tear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott worries about his people. Sloane's party. Scott has a panic attack mid-battle and seeks comfort in Reyes's arms. They have sex and it was a surprise to one of them who was the top.

If seven maids with seven mops

Swept it for half a year,

Do you suppose,' the Walrus said,

That they could get it clear?'

I doubt it,' said the Carpenter,

And shed a bitter tear.

Everything ached. Each movement that Scott took sent another jolt of pain through his body and he craved his shower, the scorching water that would roll over his abused body and release some tension from his muscles. And then he needed to make his rounds. The crew had been through a lot the last few days and needed reassurance. With the disaster that they’d stumbled into instead of a golden home, Scott worried that they might lose heart at each step back they took. He just couldn’t get it out of his head that he wasn’t supposed to be the one holding this position. Scott felt like a child trying to lead a team of much more highly qualified people. 

Today, they had had to deal with a Roekar mess on Eos and hadn’t that been proof enough that he made mistakes? On top of dealing with Kett and Roekar, Scott had been tossed hundreds of yards by the backhand of a giant beast at Resilience. The team had watched it, heard him on the coms, and thought they’d lost their Pathfinder for a second time. He shouldn’t have thought that they could start up Prodromos and not face the same failure the other sites faced.

“Pathfinder, I advise that you see Doctor T’Perro regarding your injuries. They are quite extensive,” Sam said on their private channel.

“M’fine.” Scott dropped his armor pieces to his floor, gave a longing look at his bed, then grabbed a quick shower before seeking out the others.

He padded barefoot through the ship’s hallway to the bay and engineering. Cora and Jaal were lounging on the Nomad, tools in each of their hands but not doing any actual work. Scott made his way over and leaned gingerly against the side near where Cora’s legs dangled. 

“Are you alright, Scott? I thought you were seriously injured in that fight against the fiend,” Jaal said upon spotting him, ever the emotional and caring type. It was very endearing and had allowed Scott to form an easy friendship with the man.

Nodding, Scott tried to play it off. He wouldn’t be able to lie to Lexi, but he didn’t want the others to worry. “I’ll be alright. Lexi and Sam take good care of me.”

Cora scoffed. “Lexi has her hands full with you and Liam, that’s for sure.”

Scott chuckled. She wasn’t wrong.

“If they were better at following my instructions,” interjected Sam, “they would not find as much trouble as they do.”

“They’re not good at listening to anybody. Ask Tann,” Cora said. She gave a pointed look at Scott, as if he didn’t already know how the Director felt about him.

Scott rolled his eyes. “Director Tann is the least of my concerns. He hasn’t exactly instilled confidence in me with how he’s handled things. Nor Addison either.” It was odd to talk so pointedly about the mistakes the two leaders made when Scott himself felt like he was following the pathway of bad ideas. 

“Well, maybe, but do you think we could do any better?” Cora asked, ever the loyal soldier to those who ruled above her.

Jaal snorted and set his tool aside. He climbed down off of the Nomad and put a hand on Scott’s shoulder. “As one who has been here since your people’s arrival, I would say that you have handled things  _ much _ better than the rest. You’ve brought our people together in ways your leaders could never have. They managed to create exiles, take land from us, while you rescued our Moshae and set our people free from camps.”

And he had a point. The way Jaal looked at him with appreciation in his eyes, the way he spoke so openly about what Scott had been able to do, actually made Scott believe in himself for a moment. He knew the angara were known for their honest emotions, and so Jaal meant everything he’d just said.

“Thank you,” Scott said and felt a blush creeping over his cheeks and ears.

Cora stayed quiet.

“I should check on some of the others.” Scott patted Jaal’s shoulder and the two broke apart with smiles. Turning toward Vetra’s room, Scott walked over and rapt on the door. He heard a muffled something and then the doors wooshed open.

“Hey, Pathfinder!” She beamed at him and Sid was on the vidscreen in her room.

He waved to both sisters and leaned on the wall. “How are you doing, Vetra? That was a tough fight back at Resilience.”

“I’ll talk to you later, Sid,” she said hurriedly and hung up in the middle of the younger sister’s protests. “Yeah, it really gave us a run, but we handled it well. And thanks to our efforts, Prodromos is safe again. Thank the Spirits for Bradley’s intuition, huh?”

Scott nodded. “They’ve definitely got a good pick in him as leader.”

Vetra spun in the chair a little, back and forth. “You okay? That hit you took looked pretty nasty.”

“Thank the Spirits for good armor,” Scott grinned.

She laughed, but it didn’t sound quite believable. “Absolutely. We should all have a drink some night together. Celebrate how much we’ve done so far.”

“That sounds good. Can you get something set up?” Scott knew she was good at team building, mostly because she already knew most of the team and took so well to the rest. She had Cora’s respect while also being able to unwind with Liam. Of all his team, Vetra was the most widely well-liked.

“Sure thing, Pathfinder.”

He smiled, waved, and headed out. Slowly, he made the rounds to everyone, and slowly he made it back to where he really wanted to be. When he was finally curled up in bed, he barely had time to think about getting the pillow in a perfectly comfortable position before he fell asleep.

When Scott woke the next day, he had a message waiting for him from Reyes. The email said to give him a call, and Scott’s heart pattered quickly in his chest. 

“Sam?”

“Yes, Scott?”

“Vidcalls are broadcast right? I can’t make a private one here?”

Sam was quiet for a moment, a thrum of cool biotics washing over Scott in a way that was meant to be soothing. “Unfortunately, the ship has only been set up with the main vidcall system. So, no, we cannot make a private call.”

Hmm. Scott frowned, but took comfort in Sam’s manipulation of the biotics. It was just as good as a reassuring hand on the shoulder. “Alright, well hopefully Reyes isn’t too much of...himself on the call.”

“That would be disappointing. It is fun courting with the man.”

“Yeah, but not in front of the whole crew.” Scott still didn’t think they would like his choice in companionship. Cora certainly hadn’t liked him bringing on Peebee and she was far less problematic. A bit crazy, maybe, but she wasn’t running a smuggling operation with the exiles. And then Scott realized he'd thought "companion" which really was too much for someone he would likely just have a tumble in bed with once. Maybe twice. 

_ At least a few times,  _ interjected Sam.

“Come on, putting it off won’t make it any easier,” Scott mumbled.

On their private channel now that they were walking out and toward the meeting room, Sam said,  _ Don’t worry. I’ll help you through this. _

_ Thank you. _

Scott queued up the call, putting in the information Reyes had given him to reach him and watched the blue calling screen flicker. It took a couple of long seconds, but the man picked up. The image of Reyes came to the screen, wavering, but there. The connection to Kadara must not be great considering how they had to rig up their society without the aid of the Initiative.

“Ryder!” Reyes beamed a smile that shot a warmth right to Scott’s gut. The man’s face just radiated playfulness. “I was just thinking about you.” And the way he said that made Scott squirm.

“As much as I’d love to hear more about that, this isn’t a private call, so behave yourself,” Scott warned in as quiet a tone as he could while still being picked up by the vidcall. 

Reyes chuckled, his grin narrowing his eyes. “I could tell you more over drinks.”

Scott swallowed thickly.

“Sloane is holding a get together for the locals, and I managed to snag an invite. Care to be my plus one?” He folded his arms over his chest and the relaxed position he stood in seemed to say that he knew the answer already.

_ We should really go, Scott. You owe him a drink. _

“Sloane doesn’t seem the party type,” Scott said. He was building up the courage to say yes. It had been at the tip of his tongue, but…

“She sees these events as a necessary evil to keep the people happy.” He was still smiling. Scott hadn’t lost the opportunity with him yet.

_ Ask if this is a date. _

Scott’s jaw clenched a moment, but Sam hadn’t let him down so far. “Are you asking me out on a date, then?”

Reyes’s grin changed somehow. It took over his entire body language and he leaned closer to the vid. “I promise to be a perfect gentleman.” He winked at Scott.

_ Doesn’t necessarily need to be that. I am the gentleman in this relationship, I should think. _

_ Sam, between the two of you, I might die. _

_ I wouldn’t let that happen, Scott. _

“And if I don’t want you to be a gentleman?”

_ Good _ , soothed Sam.  _ Take a deep breath, Scott.  _ He did.

“That can be arranged.” Reyes was practically purring.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Standing in the shadows of the side area to Sloane’s throne room, Reyes watched Scott approach the krogan bodyguards. The man was in his civvies, varying shades of blue leather pants and a matching shirt with sleeves rolled up to reveal his taut forearms. He looked good. 

The guard stopped him, flipping the page on the clipboard and everyone involved knew that Ryder was  _ not _ on the list. From what Reyes had seen of Scott’s encounter with Sloane, this was one of the guards he’d held a gun to as he backed out of the throne room. Still, Scott couldn’t help the quips. He was the bravest, or most stupid, man on Kadara by far. 

“Sloane ain’t lettin’ you in. Just get walkin’,” the krogran growled.

“Wait, you mean I’m  _ not _ one of the VIPs?”

Deciding that he would much rather spend his time with a living Scott Ryder, Reyes hurried over and slipped up behind Scott, wrapping an arm about his waist. “He’s with me. Reyes Vidal, and we all know  _ I’m _ on the list,” he said with a chuckle.

The guard rolled his eyes and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “We’ll be watching you, Pathfinder.”

Reyes chuckled and led Scott toward the door. “You haven’t made a lot of friends since you’ve been here.”

“I’ve made one,” Scott hummed and bumped closer to Reyes.

Damn the man was as flirty as Reyes was! This could end up being a really good or really bad night. It all depended on how successful he would be in retrieving a fun gift for the two of them to share. The doors opened and they were stopped again, this time by Kaetus who stood watch over the room.

“Ryder. What are you doing here?” Kaetus had reached a hand over, putting up a barricade at Scott’s chest to stop him from going any further. “Sloane’s already in a bad mood; if I let you in, she’ll kill me.” 

Reyes opened his mouth to speak up, but Scott beat him to it.

“I’m not here to cause problems, Kaetus, I promise. Just here to…” he looked at Reyes and then back to the turian. “Drink and socialize.”

A storm seemed to brew around Kaetus but he dropped his arm. “Don’t start any shit, or this time I’ll actually shoot you.”

“I’ll make sure he’s a perfect gentleman,” Reyes laughed as he led him away. “Seriously, though, they do not like you.”

Scott sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I’m not exactly good at this Pathfinder thing.” 

“You’re doing exceptionally well for having no training,” a voice said from the device on Scott’s wrist. “It would be hard for anyone to predict the behavior of the exiles upon introducing a new Initiative presence.”

Reyes pulled back a little and looked at it skeptically. “You bring a friend along?” He remembered suddenly what Scott had said about his AI and the response made sense.

"It's Sam. Joint package, remember?” 

"Huh. Alright." Reyes wasn’t sure how to take that. He looked Scott up and down for some tell that the man was joking, but found only a serious look staring back at him. There had been a small rumor that made the rounds about Scott’s AI being something special, and this off the cuff admission seemed to fit that. Reyes had to wonder at just what Scott’s relationship was with the AI. Could one have a personal relationship or friendship with a voice, something without form? The questions were pushed from his mind when Keema Dorgan approached.

“Reyes Vidal! Well, it’s been too long.” She came over all smiles and bright energy. “Who’s your friend? Introduce us.”

"Keema Dorgan, meet Scott Ryder, the Initiative Pathfinder." He grinned as he watched her face light up with recognition. Reyes had talked to her about him because he talked to Keema about everything. She'd heard about him from the Resistance but hadn't met him yet.

"Scott. Ryder. At last we meet. I've heard so much about you I nearly feel as though I know you."

Scott had the decency to blush at her fawning and he shifted his weight so he was closer to Keema. "Uh, pleasure. Hope what you heard wasn't from Sloane. She hates me," he chuckled.

Reyes grinned and put a hand on his lower back. "I wouldn't stand by and let Keema hear you spoken of poorly. Everything she heard came from me, of course." He liked that Scott didn't pull away from his touch.

“And Evfra,” Keema said with a wink. It was a human thing she’d picked up from Reyes, and honestly he was rather proud of her use and manipulation of human things, especially when used against Sloane.

Reyes felt Scott shuffle next to him and the man rubbed at the back of his neck. It was cute how easily flustered the man was, and how he could switch to the intimidating badass who aimed guns at exile pirates.

“Oh? I don’t think he likes me much either.” Scott chuckled and damn him, he leaned his shoulder against Reyes.

If he stayed here much longer, Reyes was not going to follow through on his plan. So he extracted him with a hand on Scott’s shoulder. “There are important people here. Mingle, and I will be right back.” He grinned and backed away, not trusting himself to stay close lest Scott trap him with a look or a touch.

“Do you treat all your dates this way, or am I just special?” The man asked. The smile he wore hid a bit of pain that Reyes hoped he would make up for shortly.

With a wink of his own, “Oh, you’re definitely special, Scott Ryder.” He turned around, putting his back to the man so that he could actually walk away. 

Ducking out of the room, Reyes left the main room and slipped into the jail cell area. He needed a distraction to get the krogan guard away from the stockroom. That was setup using the entrance Scott had found. A set of low-grade explosives that would fuck up the cells and one of the palm readers but nothing absolutely important. Then Reyes slipped back out and came back through the front door.

He took a breath, really hoping the krogan was gone or he’d see Reyes coming back through a door he shouldn’t be. The front opened and the entrance was empty. Good. Reyes jogged into the stock room and went for the back. He knew things weren’t labeled well, they never fucking were, but he had to guess that what he was looking for wouldn’t be near the front. 

Reyes kept checking the time, noting it had taken a bit longer than he’d meant to with setting off the explosives. He really didn’t want Scott spending too long in there alone. Since Keema was there, he knew the man had at least one friend, but he was in the lion’s den that was for sure.

That AI could help, too, he supposed. 

Shuffling through a third crate, Reyes cursed the exiles for their untrained bullshit. They might know how to handle a gun and kick in some teeth, but they were shit when it came to anything bureaucratic like labeling and paperwork. Then again, that was how he was going to get away with stealing the whiskey. It was how he got away with a lot of his shipments, sales, and smuggling. If Sloane’s people didn’t track their goods, they couldn’t lead the thefts back to him.

Kicking a crate, Reyes decided it was time to climb. Maybe Sloane knew enough to keep the good stuff up high. He cracked a container and then a voice shocked him from his search.

“Oh, right, come have a drink with me, Scott.” Scott’s voice came from the entrance and he strolled over, crossing his arms over his chest with a glower on his face. “I’m just here as a distraction to Sloane. So what’re you trying to steal from her?”

Reyes chuckled and climbed higher. “Yes, I admit, you were a good distraction. But this is for both of us, I promise.”

“You make a hell of a lot of promises, Vidal.”

Ouch, last name. He hopped down and came over, needing to soothe the hurt before he found the whiskey to share. “Scott, please,” he said reaching a hand out to his shoulder. The man retracted and Reyes let his hand fall. “There’s something here I wanted to share with you, but--” He heard footsteps coming their way. “Shit, someone’s coming.”

Just as Reyes was thinking of asking Scott to punch him, the man rushed forward, grabbed his face and kissed him. At first it was off kilter, their teeth clashing, but then Reyes softened in the man’s grasp and they found the right angle. Scott’s mouth was warm and tasted of alcohol; he must have been drinking at the party while waiting on Reyes. Putting his hands on Scott’s waist, he heard a woman come in and cough.

“Oh.” She coughed again, clearly trying to get them to break apart, but they only kissed deeper. 

In fact, Scott slid a leg between Reyes’s and that was just too much. It took his breath away and he barely heard the woman muttering and walking away. He tried to pull back, but Scott clung a little longer. When they did finally detach, they were both slightly breathless.

“That was quite the distraction, Pathfinder. I’m starting to think it might have been more.”

Scott raised an eyebrow and SAM, that AI, answered, “It was.”

Reyes’s throat constricted. Well, shit. He turned on the bravado, too nervous for the moment. “Well, I should…” he turned and climbed back up to the last crate on the top shelf. He rummaged through and finally found it. “Ah, gotcha. The only bottle of Mount Milgram in Andromeda.”

With a scoff of a laugh, Scott shook his head. “All this for a bottle of whiskey?”

And Reyes couldn’t contain his gasp. “This isn’t just whiskey. This is 600 year old Mount Milgram! This is treasure.” He patted the bottle which he was now bradling like one might a child.

Scott shook his head again, but he was smiling. The tension from when he’d first walked in was gone now. Good. Reyes came over and grabbed his hand. “Come on, before someone else comes looking. I’ve got a spot to show you.”

Up on the rooftops of Kadara, Reyes sat and looked out over the world with Scott right next to him. “No one else comes up here. I don’t think they’re keen on that climb up the back grating,” he said and popped open the bottle of whiskey.

“No shit, that was a climb alright. And I don’t have my jump jets on.”

“Ah, it’s not all that bad. We’re fine, aren’t we?” Reyes took a swig and the warmth of the liquid slid like smooth fire down his throat and into his stomach. He could feel it the whole way down. He passed the bottle over to Scott.

“Thanks.” He listened to Scott take a drink, then a settling sigh and the bottle was passed back.

Leaning his shoulder against Scott’s, Reyes wondered aloud, “Why’d you come to Andromeda? Was this adventure everything you thought it would be?”

Scott laughed, something sad in the tone. “I came to get away. My father’s work on Sam wasn’t well received, and I started taking a lot of heat in my job because of it.”

The way Scott said the AI’s name sounded more like a name than an acronym. “600 years and a new galaxy the only way to escape the infamy?”

“Pretty much.” Scott sighed and tipped his head onto Reyes’s shoulder. It was nice, and Reyes wrapped an arm around Scott’s waist. “What about you, Reyes? Why’d you come here?”

And that was the question, wasn’t it? The one thing he didn’t talk to anyone about, not even Keema. “To be someone.” It sounded so simple said out loud, and he feared suddenly that Scott wouldn’t understand everything that was tied to that small statement.

Lifting his head, Scott made a point of catching Reyes’s eyes. “You’re someone to me.” His voice was soft, nearly whispered and fuck everything, but Reyes felt that.

The way Scott looked at him, it felt like he really did see him. He knew all the build up behind those words, knew exactly what Reyes meant, and was sincere in his answer. That was all Reyes needed; he was lost to this man and he would not recover. Ever.

“Scott?”

“Mm?”

“Can I kiss you again?” Reyes was already reaching a hand up to cup’s Scott’s face. He leaned, lips inches from Scott’s and waited to hear an affirmation. Their breath mingled, the taste of whiskey passing between them both.

“Yes,” Scott breathed out and held still.

Reyes closed the distance and kissed Scott gently, just lips on lips. Scott shifted his body to bring them closer, and Reyes dragged a tongue over his bottom lip. When Scott opened his mouth further, Reyes delved his tongue against his. The bottle was still gripped in one of his hands, but the other moved up to tangle into Scott’s hair, and the man put his hands all over Reyes, too. It was more than what they’d shared in the stockroom, more than out where they’d dealt with Zia. 

Reyes Vidal hadn’t felt this hopeful in some time. He really liked the way Scott looked at him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Scott was pinned down as heavy gunfire flew over his head. He was crouched behind a slab of stone and pieces of it were chipping off as the constant gunfire broke it down. He was having trouble breathing as fear gathered in him. He didn’t want to die here, not like this on some offshoot mission for RemTech that Peebee needed for a project she wouldn’t even talk to him about!

“Pathfinder,” Sam growled in his head. “We need to move. If we stay here, we will be flanked.” He’d never heard Sam this panicked before and that made it worse.

“Shit, yeah, fuck. Where do I go, Sam? Where is Vetra?”

“She’s on the ledge above, but joining her will expose us to the Anointed’s gunfire.” Sam went quiet for a long moment and the gunfire seemed to get closer. Scott was sure he was about to be shot in the head any second now. “Move left, around the pillars. Liam and Jaal are near the console and there are shields up there.”

Taking a breath, Scott slipped from behind the pillar and went the way Sam said. He felt some bullets spray against his biotic shields, felt them slip a little in his panic.

“Breathe again,” Sam reminded him and he took a deeper breath, refocusing on his shields.

He ducked behind a remnant octagon shield, shot off some cover fire, and kept moving. Scott needed to get to the bigger cover and help group fire with the other two guys. He saw across the field, Peebee had Vetra’s back and Drack was charging in on the Anointed who had been trying to gun down Scott. He could move now, and he did. Collapsing into safer cover, Scott had to just sit for a second. He didn’t believe in a god, but felt the desire to pray to something. Instead, he thanked Sam and reloaded his weapon. 

Coming up over the top, he used Sam as guidance and aimed his own assault rifle fire at a kett. He thrust a hand out and blasted a wave of biotics that slammed two of them into a pillar. They collapsed and didn’t get up again.

Moments later, the team had it all under control, and they all came to meet at the console. Scott was looking down at his feet, trying to get control of his feelings. The rush of a panic attack was still playing along his nerves, and he felt like he could break down and cry at any second. He hated this feeling, especially when it happened in public.

“Got it!” Peebee chirped happily as she snagged some piece of tech from under the console.

Scott glanced at her, then turned away to assess the rest of the field. The kett had been waiting here, another ambush centered around RemTech. This wasn’t coincidence, and Scott was tired of it happening. “Alright, let’s get out of here,” he said over coms and marched through the sand of Elaaden.

“What’s the hurry, kid?” Drack asked. He was probably crouched over one of the kett, collecting a trophy.

“Yeah, I wanted to look around a bit,” Peebee voiced.

“We should look for their communications at least,” Liam added.

Fuck. Of course, and they were right. Scott stopped, hanging his head and then nodded and sunk down to sit on the far edge of the platform of the Remnant site. “Fine, do it. I need a minute.” He shut off his voice to the coms, not wanting them to overhear him and Sam. “I need help, Sam,” he whispered.

“How can I help, Scott?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to cry, but everything just feels too much. I can’t keep doing this, Sam. I don’t want to die out here.” Scott clenched at the gun in his hands and stared down at the ground. “I don’t want to die.”

“I can try to shut down some of your stimuli again, but you are in the end stages of your panic attack and it may not help.” Sam sent a soothing blast of cool biotics through Scott, though, and it felt good. It helped. “Your system is about to crash, as well. Perhaps a shot of adrenaline when it does, though I do not want to spike another attack.”

“I just need to leave. I want my room again.” He kicked his heel against the platform, anger slipping in now that the panic was slipping away. He felt the tears budding and reached over to his touchpad on his arm, blacking out his visor. Fuck. Come on, just hold out.

“This is okay, Scott. You are allowed to feel this, and crying is a natural human reaction particularly in those with anxiety conditions.” Sam’s voice was backed up with another round of cool biotics.

And Scott wanted something more. “Can we call Reyes from here somehow?”

“Not likely. Perhaps we should get a private system set up in your room, like Vetra has. Director Tann does not need to know about our additions.”

“That sounds good.” He tightened his hand into a fist, a few tears still streaking his face as the anger coursed through him. Anger at his weakness. Anger at him giving into these feelings; while what Sam made sense, he still couldn’t get himself to feel okay about it yet. “Can you think of any reason we could go back to Kadara?”

Sam was quiet for a while. “That doctor’s research is still missing.”

“Right. Good.” Scott wanted to wipe his wet face, but he couldn’t with this stupid visor stuck on himself. He needed off this fucking planet.

When he was finally back on board the Tempest, Scott shut himself away and collapsed into his bed still in sweat soaked underclothes. He was too tired to care. He’d asked Sam to talk to Vetra about getting a private channel set up for him, and had Same direct Kallo to bring them to Kadara. 

Sam woke him when they reached the Port a few hours later. Scott groaned, rolling over and feeling disgusting but mostly rested. Enough to get up and go see Reyes, anyway. He got a shower and threw on his civvies. Wanting to show this wasn’t a work call at all, he put on a pair of jeans and a Blasto t-shirt, strapping his guns to his waist over the jeans and forgoing any armor. 

“Where are you going dressed like that?” Cora asked as she and some of the others came up to head into Port, too.

“Need to talk to someone,” Scott said, wanting to be vague. “Might have a lead, and I’ll meet you guys back here later tonight.” He’d already let them know they had the day to themselves, so it wasn’t a surprise that Drack and Vetra looked ready for some trading business. Jaal was locked away in his room most likely.

“With civvies and guns? Are you going down to see that Vidal guy?” Cora wouldn’t let it go and she was standing in his way.

Fuck. “Yeah, he might have some info.”

“You sure you don’t need back up?” Liam had joined in apparently.

Scott was starting to feel trapped. He rubbed at the back of his neck and grit his teeth. “No, it’s fine. I’m fine.” He tried to edge around the group and head for the rampway.

“Be careful with him.” Cora had pursed lips. “Having a little fun with him might be dangerous in the long run.”

And Scott wanted to yell at her now, but that would only keep him here longer. His lips twisted with unspoken words but he pushed by and headed out. Scott jogged over to the elevator and down, his heart beating in his throat. When the elevator stopped and opened to the underworld, Scott was reminded that this  _ was _ a bad place and coming alone without armor wasn’t the smartest move he’d ever made.

He pushed that aside though and marched across the sulfurous pit to Tartarus. He really hoped Reyes was actually here. Maybe he should have called first.d

“He’ll be here,” Sam said. “And if he’s not, we’ll find him.”

Scott nodded and jogged up the rickety metal staircase. It was loud even under his sneakered feet. As the doors to the bar wooshed open, Scott felt out of place amidst those in armor. He grimaced and quick-walked to Reyes’s private room. He pressed at the keypad and the doors opened.

Reyes looked up and grinned. “Scott! This is a surprise.”

Stepping inside and letting the doors close, Scott was questioning his choice. He hadn’t asked to visit, he wasn’t sure he was just openly invited without business. This was stupid, wasn’t it? He stood frozen.

“Scott? Are you okay?” Reyes set aside his data pad and got up to rush over to him. His hands were immediately at Scott’s arms and that was all it took, that look of concern.

Scott collapsed into the man, tucking his face into Reyes’s neck and wrapping his arms around his waist. “Fuck, I’m sorry if this is, I mean I don’t know what we are, but I just needed someone and there isn’t anyone else. Not that I wanted someone else, because all I could think about was seeing you, and this is crazy. Fuck, what am I doing?” He went to pull away, but Reyes’s arms held him there.

“No, it’s fine, really. Stay and talk to me.”

He felt Reyes rub a hand up and down his back and the need to cry hit him all over again. Scott really hated his anxiety sometimes. He took a breath and let himself just sink into the man, letting the arms around him be a comfort.

“Can we sit?” Reyes’s voice was soft.

Scott nodded, not able to talk yet. Reyes moved them over to the couch. He sat against an arm and pulled Scott between his legs, Scott’s back to Reyes’s chest. Then he grabbed the datapad to the room and locked the door. Reyes’s hand moved up and down Scott’s arms now, his face pressed against Scott’s head. 

“Talk to me when you can. I’m listening,” Reyes said.

Taking a breath, Scott took a few minutes to settle. “I don’t think I can do this, Reyes. This Pathfinder stuff. We were ambushed again, and I thought that was it. One of these days, it’s going to be.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit. I know you have your fears, but in spite of them, you’ve done amazing things.” Reyes placed a kiss against Scott’s cheek. “You made it out today.”

“But I don’t want to anymore.”

“So quit.”

Scott laughed a broken sound. It sounded so simple, but nothing ever was. “I am attached to Sam. Not emotionally, well, yes emotionally, but I mean he can’t be passed on really. However I got him, it was different. They need me. I’m the only one who can do what I can with Sam.”

“Hmm.” Reyes moved his hands to Scott’s waist, resting warm across the thin material of the t-shirt. “So, you don’t want to keep doing this, but you don’t want to quit either.”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“If you did continue doing this, is there something that would help?” Reyes sounded so hopeful, like he was ready to offer Scott the world just to fix whatever was going on.

And that’s what settled it in Scott’s mind. “Maybe.”

For a few heartbeats it was quiet. But Reyes chuckled at the silence. “Yes?”

“What are we, Reyes? I mean, there’s something here right? I know we’ve barely started...whatever this is, but it’s something?”

“I--” Reyes cleared his throat and took a deep breath. “Yes, there’s something here. I don’t know what we are, Scott, but I know I like seeing you and I worry about you out there.”

Scott shifted, trying to sit up without hurting Reyes’s legs. He needed to look at him. Reyes moved with him easily and they were facing each other, Reyes’s hands on his hips like he just couldn’t let go of Scott. It felt good.

“I want you to just, be there. I’m getting a private channel set up in my quarters, and I want to be able to talk to you. I want to know I can come here and see you, or steal you away sometimes.”

Reyes smiled and pulled Scott to him, kissing him. “Alright, I like that.”

“You do?” Scott didn’t mean to sound so desperate or disbelieving.

“Yes, I really do.” 

Relief washed through Scott, and though he couldn’t change his circumstance with the Initiative, he at least had a piece of what he’d felt missing in all of this. He needed a partner who wasn’t attached to the shit he had to do, one he could come to and collapse with and just  _ be _ . Not be Pathfinder, just be Scott.

“The door is locked, right?” Scott asked, feeling a blush creep over his cheeks and ears. 

“Yes, why?” Reyes asked, putting a finger under his chin and tilting his face up.

Scott swallowed. “Because I want to fuck you.”

Reyes’s eyebrows went up and he grinned wickedly. “Is that so? Well, I think that can be arranged.” He put his lips back to Scott’s and his fingers went to the bottom of Scott’s t-shirt. Reyes tugged the cloth upward and they had to part for it to be pulled over his head completely. 

Scott started on the zipper on Reyes’s jumpsuit. As he tugged it down, he revealed a tight white shirt beneath. He shoved a hand up under the shirt when the jump hung half off of him, and ran a hand up Reyes’s chest, finding a trail of hair from his belly up to his chest. Scott dragged his nails through it and sunk his lips against Reyes’s neck. The man felt fucking good.

Reyes was trying to get at Scott’s jeans but as Scott sucked at his neck, the two surged against each other, rucking their hips together. They were both half-hard already and Scott moaned at the feeling of his jeans on his growing erection. 

“Scott, you feel so good,” Reyes hummed as he dropped his head back and let Scott teeth and suck at his neck.

Scott growled and fought Reyes’s shirt off over his head, wanting to get his mouth on more of the man’s skin. Reyes chuckled at his greediness and then groaned when Scott put his teeth to one of the man’s nipples. He gently bit at it then sucked. His mouth moved on quickly, roving over collarbones, throat, up to his jaw, loving how the man tasted.

Reyes for his part, ran his hands up and down Scott’s bare sides, clearly having given up on getting more clothes off of them for now. They ground their hips together again and both let out a throaty groan at the friction.

When Scott got to Reyes’s mouth, their hands finally got to working off their pants, socks, and shoes. The lower they got, they had to break apart and fucking help him, but Scott whined as their mouths broke apart.

“Fuck, Scott, those noises are going to kill me.”

“I can’t get enough of you right now,” Scott whined and put his mouth back on Reyes’s chest once they were both fully naked. He kissed his way down the hair trail and planted himself between Reyes’s legs.

“Oh,” Reyes breathed out when Scott’s breath passed over his cock. His fingers found their way into Scott’s hair, tangling there but not pulling or pushing.

Scott grabbed his dick and put his mouth around the head. He suckled at it, flicking his tongue over the slit and then he sunk his mouth down the shaft, relaxing his throat to take him all the way down. His nose buried in Reyes’s dark pubic hair. Coming back up, Scott took a breath and sucked his way back down. He heard Reyes keening above him, his fingers flexing in Scott’s hair.

“Shit, that’s good,” Reyes groaned.

Scott pressed his tongue along the back of the shaft and went down again. He reached a hand up and cupped Reyes’s balls, his middle finger stretching out to rub circles on the man’s sensitive perineum. He felt Reyes tense and cry out in pleasure and Scott bobbed up on down on his cock. It had been a while since he’d sucked a dick, and Soctt had forgotten how much he’d enjoyed it.

Before the man could cum, though, Scott pulled off with a debauched sucking sound. He moved his mouth down to Reyes’s ass and slathered his hole in the wet spit from his lips and tongue.

“Fuck!” Reyes shouted, possibly caught off guard from the sudden shift. He tossed one of his legs over Scott’s shoulder and opened himself up further.

Scott tongue-fucked him and then put a finger to his hole, circling but not entering. He looked up at Reyes, caught his eye. “Is this okay?”

“Yes,” Reyes panted. “Just...slow. I haven’t been fucked in a while.”

Scott nodded. “Tell me if anything is too much,” he said and slowly pushed inside of Reyes, watching his face as he did. Reyes’s mouth dropped open and hsi hands dropped down to the couch sides, gripping as his hips thrust. Slowly, Scott sunk his finger in deeper. He dipped his mouth back down, adding spit to keep the movement slick.

“Do you have lube?”

Reyes didn’t answer right away, his body shaking under Scott’s tendings. “What? Oh, yeah, there.” Reyes pointed to the desk in the room.

Scott didn’t want to leave this warm spot, but he wanted Reyes comfortable when he fucked him. So he pulled away carefully and retrieved the small container. He popped it open and drizzled some on his fingers. Then he pressed his slick fingers back to Reyes’s hole and sunk two into the man. He scissored slowly to work him open further. 

When he seemed ready, panting heavily and dick twitching against his stomach, Scott got up to his knees and grabbed the lube again. He drizzled the liquid on his dick and slathered it up. 

“Still good?” Scott asked quietly as he grabbed one of Reyes’s legs at the knee and moved him open. He paused, waiting for an answer before going any further.

Reyes nodded, pupils blown and voice apparently lost. He shifted with Scott’s movements, allowing him to get down between his legs comfortably. Scott slotted his dickhead to Reyes’s hole and pressed slowly inside. He stopped when he first breached, giving Reyes a moment to adjust. When he saw him nod, Scott pressed in further and with the lube it was an easy stretch. 

Once he got himself in far enough, Scott planted a hand on the couch next to Reyes’s head and hovered above him. He rocked his hips forward and Reyes’s hands wrapped around him, bringing him down into a kiss. Scott found Reyes’s warm mouth and thrust his hips, grinding in a slow rhythm. 

There was no reason to rush this as the two explored each others’ bodies with hands, teeth, and lips. Sweat slicked and panting their names, Scott and Reyes found an even, blissful pace that built a slow, warm climax in Scott’s belly.

When he was close, he wrapped a hand around Reyes’s cock to bring him over the edge with him. They climaxed together with their names on the other’s lips. 

Getting cleaned up proved a little difficult. There wasn’t much in the room since this wasn’t Reyes’s bedroom, so they ruined Reyes’s white undershirt and then sent a freshly dressed Scott off to the bar to get a couple waters and whiskeys.

Scott came back and they curled on the couch together, Scott in Reyes’s arms again. “That was good. Thank you.”

“Thank me?” Reyes laughed. “That was all you, Scott Ryder. Though I have to admit, I thought I’d be the one topping in this relationship.”

“Did you, I mean was that not okay?”

Reyes laughed again. “Scott, do you seriously have to ask that after the orgasm you just gave me?”

Blushing, Scott laughed softly. “I suppose not.”

“I’m a switch, anyway, so top or bottom is fine. It’s just been a while, and you honestly give off big sub-bottom vibes. It was great though.” Reyes took a swig of the whiskey, his water already gone.

Scott was still sipping at his water, his whiskey on the table. “You uh...you wouldn’t want to spend the night with me, would you?”

“What on your ship?” Reyes asked.

“Yeah. I mean, the crew already knows I came here to see you, so that’s out of the bag I guess, and I don’t want this to end yet but this couch is only so comfortable.” Scott shifted to emphasize his point. There wasn’t as much room as he would like.

“Sure. I’d love to get you in a bed and have a few more rounds then get to properly bask in the afterglow.” Reyes pushed Scott up. “This room doesn’t allow for all the fun we could have.” He winked and unlocked the door.

And that was just what the two of them did. Scott found his nerves quite calm when he was wrapped up naked with Reyes in bed.


	6. And Shook His Heavy Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonding with SAM. High Noon. Scott dealing with angry feelings.

O Oysters, come and walk with us!'

The Walrus did beseech.

A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,

Along the briny beach:

We cannot do with more than four,

To give a hand to each.'

It was early the next morning, and Reyes had been on the Tempest all night. Reyes stood at the end of Scott’s bed looking down at the man who was sprawled naked and smiling, the sheets half-pulled across his hips. One of his legs peeked out at an angle, lean muscle clearly marking his active lifestyle. Reyes reached out a hand and ran it up Scott’s leg, slowly crawling up the bed to hover above him. 

“You are gorgeous, did you know?”

Scott’s face flamed and Reyes laughed, bending down to kiss the tip of his nose, his cheek, and then his lips. “Yeah, I don’t-”

“Stop arguing with the man, Scott.” That AI’s voice poured through the room and Reyes froze for a moment.

“Well, hello there SAM. Are you joining us this round?” he asked cheekily, grinning down at Scott. He still wasn’t sure how a non-corporeal AI could join Scott in  _ everything _ , as he’d said.

The room was quiet for a moment, but then the AI spoke up again. “That would be amenable.”

Reyes swallowed hard. “How, um, how would that work?”

And fuck him, but the look that spilled across Scott’s face shot fire through Reyes’s groin. 

“I’ll show you,” Scott said, pulling Reyes down to his lips again. His hands travelled over Reyes’s back and little blasts of cold followed their trail like the man was pushing biotics through the touch. 

Reyes shivered and groaned into Scott’s mouth. His hips thrust against Scott’s, and he could feel the man’s hardening length beneath him. Scott’s hands kept trailing over Reyes’s body, but the cold changed. Little jolts of electricity ran over him, making him tighten and relax his muscles involuntarily. It was exhilarating. 

“Do you want to fuck him, Reyes?” SAM’s voice sounded almost like a whisper now. “Scott would look perfect underneath you with your cock buried in his ass.”

Suddenly breathing was very difficult. “Holy shit…” Reyes was a bit lost for words. That was not what he was expecting.

Scott chuckled. “He’s rather forward.”

“Apparently,” Reyes breathed out. Once his mind had caught up, he leaned down and captured Scott’s lips once more. “He’s not wrong though. You would look amazing writhing in pleasure beneath me.”

And the whine that Scott let loose reminded Reyes of hours ago in Tartarus. This man was too hard to resist. So Reyes grabbed one of his legs and spread him open, pulling the sheet away from his body. Scott reached to the bedside table and then handed him a bottle of lube. Wetting Scott’s ass and his own dick, Reyes lined his hips up with Scott’s and slowly pushed himself inside of Scott. It was a wonderfully familiar feeling after everything they’d done during the night.

Scott’s hands went back to roaming, SAM adding blasts of cold, hot, and electric biotics to the touching. This was less familiar but very welcome. It made Reyes’s head spin, and it wasn’t long before Reyes lost himself to the feeling. The feelings were all too much, and as he emptied into Scott, the man followed after with his own orgasm.

A while later, cleaned up and lying together in bed, Reyes squeezed Scott in a hug and planted a kiss on his temple. “Feeling better than this morning?”

With a soft huff, “Yeah. I’m sorry I was such a mess earlier.”

“Please, you don’t need to apologize for that. If you hadn’t come to me with a breakdown, we wouldn’t be here now.” Reyes chuckled. “Although, should I leave before your crew gets back and comes looking for you?”

“Mmm,” Scott groaned and nuzzled closer to Reyes’s neck. “No, stay.”

Even though Reyes thought that might be a bad idea, he couldn't get himself to leave when Scott sounded so sleep-needy. It had been quite some time since Reyes had had a relationship that he was excited about, 620 years give or take. The start of this thing with Scott had him expectant. Scott was not like the others, nothing like Aria or Zia. He was softer.

Reyes ran his fingers along Scott’s exposed side occasionally feeling a burst of cold reminding him that SAM was there, part of Scott and part of this. 

The experience had been interesting.  _ Was _ interesting as Reyes was more and more aware of the AI’s presence in Scott’s life. He tilted his head to look down at the man; his eyes were closed, his lips slightly parted as his breathing was slow and even in the afterglow. His skin was still slightly flushed. He looked much better than the panicked mess that had shown up at Reyes’s door earlier, and Reyes had contributed to that, hadn’t he?

There was still a very real chance that he was going to mess this all up though. The tension on Kadara was coming to a head as a plan started forming in Reyes’s head. Sloane needed to be taken down especially now that the Initiative was sending Scott out into the universe. It wouldn’t be safe with rising hostilities, and the last thing they needed was an all out war between their people. The kett and Roekar were enough to deal with. The population on Kadara wouldn’t sustain heavy losses. 

And how would Scott react when he found out who Reyes really was? How would he look at Reyes then? 

He couldn’t bring himself to tell Scott yet, still needing to see desire in Scott’s look, not disgust.

“Scott,” SAM’s voice was surprisingly loud amidst the quiet of the room.

Scott shook awake, jerking upright. “Wha-”

Reyes chuckled, staying where he was against the pillow but reaching out a hand to run down Scott’s back. 

“Cora is looking for you.” 

The growl of annoyance that Scott let out was amusing. “Is something going on?” He stayed upright, one leg hanging over the bed and body tensed as though he was ready to jump into action. 

“She merely asked Kallo where you were. She just returned from the upper Port, it seems. Cora may be headed this way.”

Reyes watched Scott scrub his hands through his hair and heave a sigh. “Alright. Can you tell her-”

There was a knock on the door and Reyes felt suddenly very exposed. It could have been the complete lack of clothes, but it was also very much the absence of the gun he always kept on him. It was across the room now, on the table by the couches. 

“One second!” Scott called out and tapped something on his omni-tool. “Door’s locked, right Sam?”

Again, the way Scott said that word sounded like a name. And Reyes guessed he could see why now. 

“Yes, Scott.”

The two men got up and threw clothes on. Reyes was tucking his gun into the holster low on his back when Scott turned to him, biting his lip. Before he could say anything, though, Reyes interrupted his nervous thought, “I should probably get going, Scott.” Reyes closed the space between them and pulled Scott into a kiss, wrapping a hand around his neck and delving his fingers into the man’s hair. He pulled back and looked at him. “Call me later?”

Scott nodded. “As soon as I get the system set-up in here.” His eyes darted to the desk. “Hopefully tonight.”

They broke apart when another knock sounded. “Scott? I need to talk to you.”

Reyes chuckled and strolled toward the door. He heard the lock disengage and then the doors whoosed open seemingly on their own.

“Oh,” Cora said eyeing Reyes with a grimace on her face. “I didn’t realize you were here.”

Reyes dragged his tongue over his teeth and winked. “Thanks for a good time, Scott. Sam.” Feigning comfort in this situation, Reyes strolled through the ship and to the airlock that would let him out. As he got there, Sam spoke up.

“Have a good day, Mr. Vidal.” The ship opened up and the ramp extended for him.

“You as well, Sam.” Reyes left, whistling as he walked. Today was going to be a good day.

As Reyes strolled back through familiar pathways below the city, he started to pull the strings of his plan together at a meeting point. He needed to get Kaetus out of the way or everything could fall apart. That turian was loyal to the point of being a menace. If Reyes was going to get close to Sloane, that man couldn’t be with her. 

But there were solutions. 

Heading back into Tartarus, Reyes shut himself inside his room and got onto his communications. This was going to take some time and some help. First, he reached out to a few of his contacts in the Collective, getting the ones inside of Sloane’s crew mobilized. He’d managed to get six people within her ranks in the last few months; it hadn’t been easy. Or cheap, but it was going to be worth it.

Next he got Keema and Tracker, using their help to send out blasts of warnings and ‘intercepted’ messages about a Kett issue on Kadara. They made sure that Kaetus and those closest to him would see those messages first. Already, the man had gotten the pathfinder to hunt a group of them, and with Scott taking off today from the planet, Kaetus would have to handle this emergency himself.

Finally, the last step was to get to Tracker in place to make sure Kaetus was hurt badly enough to be placed in medical care for a while. Tracker was fine with that, having few qualms with violence, especially for the pay that Reyes was offering.

A flash of a frown ran through Reyes’s mind all of a sudden. He remembered Scott’s face as the man talked about Sloane being a criminal. He remembered the way Scott looked at Zia as she laid out the trap to them. Reyes’s chest tightened. That didn’t matter; his fear didn’t matter because in the long run, taking out Sloane and stopping a larger scale battle would help protect Scott and also Kadara’s connection to the Initiative. There was a chance for healing, for families to be reunited, and for their people to come together again. That chance wasn’t there with Sloane around.

Still, it would hurt to lose Scott.

Tossing the communications pad down on the seat next to him, Reyes stomped his way out and down to Kian. The man took one look at his sour face and turned around, grabbing a bottle of whiskey and a glass. “I’ll have another one bought up in a couple hours,” Kian said as he slipped the items through the bars.

Reyes grunted and nodded. Then he went back to the room and finished up the last few details. He would need to take a trip out to draullir to ensure the location was empty and safe for luring Sloane to later, but that could wait until he’d drowned some of his nerves in alcohol.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Scott had been through a lot of shit and a lot of disappointment since saying yes to his sister about going to Andromeda. But all of that – the entirety of the fuck-ups in this new universe – they did not compare to the feeling of his lungs collapsing and sinking to the pit of his stomach as he watched Reyes Vidal step out from a ledge and say, “It looks like you’re waiting for someone.” Familiar words, wrong feelings.

Flashes of their last few encounters riddled Scott’s brain; him pulling Reyes close in Sloane’s stock room, kissing him; passing a drink back and forth as they talked about life; the night spent in his Tempest bedroom losing themselves to each other.

Sloane’s questions pushed through the flashes of Reyes, and Scott responded flatly, “He’s one and the same.” The Charlatan. Reyes had fucking lied straight to his face.

Scott watched Reyes and Sloane circle each other, but their witty repertoire was cut out by SAM’s prodding in the back of his mind. He saw the glint of the scope. “Sniper; his sights are set on Sloane.” The voice reverberated stronger than internal thoughts. They were a comfort that Scott clung to when things got rough.

There was a hesitation, but Scott’s shock and his dislike for Sloane kept him from moving. He watched as the sniper fired off a shot, as Sloane fell to the ground with a groan, and as his lover pointed a finger-gun at her and spoke the word ‘bang’. Reyes even blew across the top of his fingers, like some cheesy movie scene. The shock of the situation allowed Scott to give into initial, base feelings; he actually smiled at Reyes’s movements.

Maybe his crew had been right, though.

“Get her out of here. Prepare the crew; Kadara Port is ours tonight.”

Sam felt as cold and broody in his head as Scott felt.  _ Questioning him is a good idea, Pathfinder. _ Pathfinder, distance. Scott followed slowly behind. “Guess you got everything you wanted.” He felt used.

Reyes turned around, looking Scott up and down. “What I want is peace. Sloane would have brought war to Heleus. We don’t have the population to survive that.” 

It was sound logic, and logic that Scott got behind. He had been putting out fires for weeks now, so maybe Reyes had just done the same on Kadara. Still, there was something on a more personal level that bothered him, that kept his lungs deflated and heart sunken.

“Ask him,” Sam said through the omni-tool. 

Reyes glanced at it and back at Scott’s face, lifting an eyebrow. “Ask me?” 

“Why didn’t you trust me?”

Pain flickered across Reyes’s face, knotting his eyebrows and darkening his gorgeous brown eyes. “I like the way you looked at me. I was afraid that would change.” It was the most honest thing Scott had heard from him, since their passing of the bottle back and forth on Kadara’s rooftops.

Scott had to answer as honestly as he could. “Nothing’s changed.” And it hadn’t. Reyes was, to him, still a man worth loving. He was everything opposite of Scott, and trouble for someone following Initiative law, but still someone he wanted to be with. “I just can’t have you lie to me.”

“Ever again,” Sam added. His tone sounded as hurt as Scott’s.

There was a long moment as the two of them stared at each other, and a myriad of emotions passed over Reyes’s face. He was clearly working through what they’d said. Eventually, his face became resolute and he gave a single, solid nod. Scott’s face broke from wrinkles of worry to soft acceptance, his lips giving a bit of a smile in the corner. 

Reyes grabbed his armor, pushing him against the wall of the cave. “You have bad taste in men,” he said before engulfing Scott in a head-spinning kiss.

They pulled back long enough to breathe and for Scott to add, “The worst.”

“I have to get back to the port, but do you think we have enough time to, uh…” Reyes grinned and Scott knew exactly what the man had in mind. And that stupid face, those damned lips, Scott couldn’t say no even if he was still feeling a bit of anger over the situation.

“Sam, can you tell the others to meet me back at the Tempest?” Scott reached up and wrapped his hands around Reyes’s neck. “So long as I can catch a ride back with you, that is.”

Reyes grinned. “Of course you can, mi alma.”

Scott needed to learn Spanish. He grinned, though and kissed the man again. After confirmation from both sides that their people would head out or wait outside the cave, clothes and armor began falling away. Reyes hauled Scott up and fucked him against the cave wall. Scott might have scratched into his back a little hard, and Sam let a few zaps remind Reyes that he was still in some trouble with them, but it was good. It felt like the beginning of making up.

When they finished and got their clothes back on, Scott went with Reyes in his shuttle, sitting with a few others who he didn’t know. He could feel himself blushing because it was just so very clear what Reyes and he had taken the time to do. He relaxed when Reyes put an arm around his shoulders and tugged him against his side, planting a kiss on top of his head. 

“Keema will be the one running things as The Charlatan,” Reyes said to the group. “My identity does not leave this shuttle.”

The sniper raised an eyebrow, leaning on his rifle and giving a look at Scott. “You think Initiative there is going to keep your secret just because y’all are fucking?”

Reyes didn’t even so much as bristle. In a calm voice he said, “Yes, Tracker, I do. He would keep it secret even if we  _ weren’t _ fucking because there is a benefit to my staying in the shadows, one that extends beyond Kadara Port and out to the Initiative and the angara.”

Scott couldn’t really argue with that, and he was right. Scott had no intention of giving up the Charlatan identity. Partially because it was Reyes and he was a bit, uh, wrapped up in the man. But also because of politics. It was the same reason he was working side-by-side with Morda. Humans and the other races had a lot of shit to make up for, and Scott would not drop his morals for government say-so. He’d proven that a few times already, much to the displeasure of Tann and Addison. 

“My team works beyond the scope of the Initiative, and it’s none of their business who the Charlatan really is, so long as things stay peaceful. Don’t let your people become like Sloane’s and we won’t have a problem.” Scott slouched a bit, feeling tired after all the emotional drama of the last few days. How the fuck was this his life?

“The team will be monitored,” Sam said and Scott nodded his agreement.

Tracker seemed skeptical still, but it didn’t matter. Reyes knew what was what, and that was the important thing. They rode back with Reyes taking over the discussion, making sure everyone knew what needed to be done to ensure a peaceful take over. He didn’t want any gunfights between the Collective and the fallen Outcasts. They would take Outcast members into their ranks if it didn’t seem like loyalty to Sloane would be a problem, and they would jail those who would be a problem to the peace. 

That included Kaetus.

And then Scott remembered Sloane’s anger over how Kaetus had been hurt. 

Reyes had ordered that.

Scott grit his teeth.  _ Sam, I’m not sure I’m okay with that detail. I don’t...It makes sense why he did it but, I don’t know _ .

_ You’re in an emotionally vulnerable state right now. Betrayed, had sex, your intentions questioned. Perhaps acting out now would not be beneficial. I would suggest heading back to the Tempest and having a discussion once you’re in a more level condition. _

Scott agreed. When Reyes pulled into Port, he made a quick goodbye to the man and rushed off. He tried to ignore the questioning face that Reyes wore as Scott hurried away from him. 

Before Scott could have the talk with Reyes, he had to leave port. Fortunately, Vetra had gotten a private communications set up in his room, so he left Reyes a message letting him know he had to leave but wanted to have a talk when they were both free.

So, instead of pulling out his emotional insides, Scott and team found themselves on the asari ark. It was in bad shape. Scott found that having to take care of Vederia as they made their way through the kett, kept his mind from panic. She was young, scared, and this ark was barely hanging on. He didn’t have time to panic over dying here.

And then he had to contend with Cora’s breakdown. He was not going to let Sarissa get away with what she had done, military tactics aside. Scott stuck to his ideals of right and wrong as always. Still, he stepped up to their sides when they needed to shield the ark from the attack. He pushed his biotics with them, and they were able to get away safely.

Because they had worked as a team, stood side by side, he emphasized as Vederia was put in the Pathfinder position. Cora didn’t talk to him the entire trip back to the Nexus. That was fine; Scott was getting used to making decisions that people hated him for. Fuck him but he was starting to understand his father. You know, once the man had died. Ah, the timing of Scott’s life never left a person wanting for the dramatic.

Scott scrubbed away some of his anger in the shower, and then found himself with a towel still around his neck and just a pair of sweats, sitting at his desk staring at the communications center. There was a message waiting for him. Likely from Reyes since no one else had this contact outside of his team. He swallowed and clicked it.

Reyes’s voice filled the space. “Hello Scott. Sorry I missed your call. Yes, we should talk. I’ve got my comm on me, so call any time.”

Rubbing his hands over his face, Scott took a steadying breath. He called Reyes. The man answered right away, his smiling face showing up across the device. It was clear the man was out doing something on Kadara, not sitting around Tartarus, but he’d still answered. 

“Scott!” The way he always said SCott’s name, like he was surprised to see him every time, was endearing. 

“Hi. Is this a good time?”

“Eh, good enough.”

Scott smiled and sat back in his chair. “You, um, dropped a lot on me all at once, you know.”

“Yeah,” Reyes grimaced. “I suppose I did.”

“I just.” Scott scratched at his chin, thinking. “I know that we’re different. We’re…” his hands started moving around in his nervousness. “We work in vastly different capacities and that’s not always going to be smooth for our relationship, and yeah, I’m a little mad at some tactics you used but not mad enough that I want to like, break this off or anything, but I need to talk about it and be angry a little.”

Scott half expected Reyes to cut it off there, to say that this was his life and if Scott didn’t like it, he didn’t need to be part of it. But that wasn’t what happened.

Instead, he chuckled. “You have a right to be angry.I can’t dictate your feelings, but we can always talk about them. This is only going to work if we talk to each other. I get that. Now. I wasn’t sure at first because I figured you wouldn’t want to put up with me, but yes, talk at me.”

“Kaetus. That was dirty. That was...Sloane and Zia tactics.”

Reyes nodded. “Yes.”

“Next time, can you, I don’t know. Call me first and I’ll help you work out something other than beating the living hell out of someone?”

Another chuckle. “Why Pathfinder. Are you suggesting that you’ll help me with my illegal activities?” He waggled his eyebrows. 

Scott scoffed and shook his head. “Sort of, I guess.”

“Sam?”

“Yes, Reyes?”

“I think our boy here is trying to become a criminal.”

Sam made a noise like a half-laugh. “I will not allow that. But, I will let him assist you when you are in trouble. That is, arguably, different.”

Scott and Reyes both laughed, and Scott spoke up. “Not sure it is, but let’s just go with,  _ I’m _ going to make sure the two of you stay out of trouble so you can keep being  _ my _ support.”

“Any chance I can see you in the next few days?” Reyes was leaning against his shuttle now and Scott had to admit, he did want to see the man in person again. It had only been a few days since draullir, but it was a few days too many.

“We need to follow-up with the findings on Kadara regarding the turian ark,” Sam said. “But we have time to stop at Kadara first.”

“Cora and some of the others won’t like that.” Scott grimaced. “Anything we can use as an excuse?”

All three of them fell quiet for a long time.

“I could make some shit up, throw some threats out there that need Initiative response,” offered Reyes. 

Scott laughed and shook his head. “Probably not a good idea. I’ll just set the heading and not talk to people.”

“No healthy,” Reyes said. “Gotta build trust with your team. You could go with what we’re trying and just tell the truth.”

Sinking in defeat, Scott chewed his lip. “Yeah, I suppose that’s the right thing to do.” Still, he didn’t want to. “Call me when you get back to Tarturus? Hopefully by then I’ll be done dealing with telling people I want to see my-” Scott swallowed his words.

“Your what?” Reyes grinned, already climbing into the cockpit of his shuttle. “Lover?”

“He was going to say boyfriend,” Sam supplied.

Scott flushed.

Reyes’s grin went wider. “Boyfriend, huh? Good, I like that.”

And suddenly, Scott felt like he had some strength to tell his crew. They all knew already anyway.

  
  
  


**BONUS SCENE: I won’t be able to use this in my new time-line, but I liked it, so a slight branching AU scene just for fun.**

Scott walked into the room in Tartarus on the second floor alone. While his crew had worries, he had plans. “Thought you’d be in the throne room. Tartarus is a little shabby for Kadara’s new leader. Don’t you think?”

Reyes shrugged, “Come on Ryder. You know I prefer to rule from the shadows.”

“You are a shady bastard,” Scott responded with a laugh.

“But a handsome one, right?” Damn the man for his quick, to-the-point flirtations. That was Scott’s trick. “The angara you met at Sloane’s party, Keema Dorgan, she’s agreed to be my front. And with Sloane gone there’s room for the initiative on Kadara.”

Ah, business. “I’ll start rounding up volunteers for an outpost. It might take a while; exiles have a reputation.” If Reyes wanted business-talk, Scott could give it to him. There was still plenty of time for rest of the conversation.

“Not all of us are thieves and murderers. I am,” he shrugged again and offered a chuckle. “But some of the others are perfectly nice.”

The laugh from Scott wasn’t fake…exactly. “Perfectly.”

“Jokes aside, I want this outpost just as much as you do. It will have my full protection. That’s a promise.”

Promise, hmm. Reyes was full of promises, and Scott was starting to gauge just how many he was good for. “I allied myself with the right man.”

“If we’re done with all the boring business talk, there is something I want to do.”

“Oh? You’re up to something. Again.” Still, Scott felt his heart hiccup when Reyes stood up, drawing closer.

“I neglected you on our first date. How about we fix that?” He clicked a remote to something, and music began to play. Slow dance music.

“I didn’t know you had a romantic streak.” Reyes pulled him out into the middle of the room, then close to his chest. Scott was happy to let the other man lead, enjoying the warmth that radiated between the two of them. The anger that Scott had tucked away began to slip off. Maybe his crew was right to worry about him.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” Reyes had his damned sad eyes out again. The ones that made Scott feel ten times bigger and more protective. “Since leaving the Nexus, my survival has depended on secrets. I don’t want any more of those between us, Scott.”

Scott tightened his hand about Reyes shoulders. “You’re the encrypted one.”

There was pause, then Reyes chuckled out a broken stream of laughter, as though he was holding something back.

“What?”

Reyes shook his head slightly. “I was about to say something cheesy.”

With a smile, Scott nuzzled against Reyes’s cheek. “Say it.”

And he did. “Consider me hacked.”

“Ugh, just stop talking.”

They both laughed, and Reyes put his forehead against Scott’s. For some time, they remained quiet in each other’s arms. The music played softly in the background of their dance. The two fell into an easy rhythm with one another. Everything was perfect, if only for a short while.

“Scott?” The steps slowed.

“Hmm?” He kept his cheek against Reyes’s, not yet wanting to pull away.

There was a long pause, and Scott stayed silent until Reyes was ready to say whatever needed so much thought. “I’m happy you came back here. I… wasn’t sure you would.”

Taking a deep breath, Scott peeled himself from Reyes and pulled them to a stop. He let his hands slide down and rest on Reyes’s chest, fingertips curling slightly in the fabric of the half-jacket to keep him in place. “There was a debate on my part. Your world, your life, it isn’t what I’m used to. But neither is this entire galaxy, so I’m willing to take a chance for something great.” Scott pulled his hands up, cupping either side of Reyes’s face. Reyes’s hands found their way up to rest on the outside of Scott’s. “I meant it when I said you were someone to me, and I knew who you were when I first kissed you. Nothing has changed.”

There weren’t any tears from Reyes; although, it looked like it came close. Reyes closed the short space between them, their lips colliding in heated need. Never had Scott been kissed so desperately, so needily. Scott was consumed by Reyes’s heat, and he gave back just as much. One of his hands slipped from Reyes’s cheek up to his dark hair, entangling itself into the longer locks at the top of his head. The other fell back down to his chest, gripping at the muscle there.

A moan escaped Scott, and a growl from Reyes followed. Scott felt himself being pushed slowly backwards, so he scuffled his feet carefully until his ass collided with a table top. He felt himself splayed across it, and Reyes stood back a moment, staring down at him. He grinned wolfishly and started at Scott’s pants, unhooking them and pulling them off. Scott managed to wiggle out of his shirt and when he could see again, Reyes was stripped down as well.

The man climbed up on the table with Scott, and there was a moment of fear that the thing would collapse. It didn’t and the growl that Reyes let out put a shiver through Scott. The hand that suddenly wrapped around his hardening erection made Scott yelp in surprise and thrust his hips involuntarily. 

Reyes straddled Scott’s hips, a hand still holding his cock. He guided Scott to his opening and sank slowly on his cock. Scott’s back arched and he tossed his head back as he cried out, “Reyes! Fuck, oh fuck.”

“Fuck, Ryder, that’s good.”

Reyes rode him in quick passion and neither lasted long. Scott decided he quite liked making up with Reyes.


End file.
